Pakistan-Afghanistan Friendship Bus Service from Peshawar will proceed for Jalalabad on Friday. All preparations in this regard have been finalised. A bus from Afghanistan side carrying 8 member-Afghan delegation and 15 passengers had already arrived in the provincial metropolis on Wednesday.
A meeting in this respect was held with Provincial Secretary Environment and Transport Noor-ul-Haq in the chair. The meeting reviewed security and immigration arrangements for the bus service. Those who attended the meeting were including Director Transport Muhammad Sajid, Deputy Secretary Environment Masood-ur-Rehman, Assistant Director Passport and Immigration Torkham Ikhtiar Gul, immigration inspectors and other concerned officers.
The meeting decided that travel documents of the passengers would be checked at Peshawar besides Torkham border so that a passenger having complete documents may not be stopped at the border and returning back.
Similarly dual immigration documents would be arranged for drivers and other staff of the bus service while decision for accompanying security guards with the bus was also taken. A bus design depicting Islamic and cultural values of both the countries was also approved.
The NWFP Minister for Transport Akhtar Nawaz Khan along with high authorities concerned would see off passengers of the pilot bus in a simple but impressive ceremony to be held at special bus terminal in Peshawar.
Formal bus service between the two countries will start from April 15. As per schedule, five buses from private sector and one from PTDC will daily leave from Peshawar to Jalalabad and six vice versa from Jalalabad to Peshawar.
Later bus service from Peshawar to Kabul will also be started after completion of the second phase successfully. Agreement about starting bus service between the two countries was signed during official visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Pakistan.
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