A chock-a-block of over 4,000 people and 2,113 loaded trucks stuck at the Peshawar-Torkham and the Quetta-Chaman routes with no facility after the closure of the Pak-Afghan border has increased the chances of another breeding ground of COVID-19 after the Taftan quarantine camp.
Pakistan now occupies 29th position out of 175 countries, including Afghanistan, with rapid growth in the coronavirus cases during the last couple of days mainly due to mishandling of suspected patients at quarantine camp at Taftan borders.
The transit trade activities at Chaman has been halted since March 3 while the Torkham border was closed on March 16 on the request of Afghan government due to COVID-19 pandemic that claimed 9,357 lives worldwide.
According to Directorate General of Transit Trade, around 1587 forward transit containers were stuck in the route to Chaman border and around 526 were parked between Peshawar-Torkham route, which started their journey from Karachi port and Bin Qasim port.
"With the announcement of complete moratorium of all activities at western border to secure the health and safety of the people of Pakistan, the federal government has left these persons (over 4000 persons including drivers and helpers) with no facility at the mercy of deadly virus rising fear that these places could become another breeding ground for coronavirus after Taftan quarantine camp," said Arshad Jamal, chairman All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA).
He said that APCAA has sent a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, requesting him to issue directives for ensuring all necessary facilities for them as they were stuck en-route to Afghanistan due to government's preventive measures.
He feared that if any driver was affected then it could not only be spread among them but the population of Peshawar and Quetta could also come under coronavirus threats hence they should be given proper medical examination.
"Apart from that, the risk factor is higher for the said stranded cargos worth billions and so far there is no protection for these cargoes," he said and stressed the authorities concerned to make arrangements for stationing these stranded cargos at safe place in order to protect them from miscreants.
Furthermore, Arshad said the accumulated losses in terms of containers demurrages and detention besides truck damages soured to Rs58 million per day hence the authorities concerned should not only direct the shipping companies and terminal operations to waive all charges but also restrict customs department to avoid blocking NTN of bonded carriers automatically through WeBOC system due to delays in delivering the cargos during this extraordinary situation.
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