Shipping companies working in the country have stopped booking of containers for export goods from Peshawar, leaving the exporters of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) with no option other than transporting their goods to Karachi through ordinary trucks.
The shipping companies carrying on businesses in Pakistan included Delta, APL, Hemburg 2, MSC and others. They were providing containers booking facility to the exporters of KP.
Talking to Business Recorder, a member of executive committee of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), and chairman of KPCCI standing committee on railway and dry port said that the exporters of Peshawar used to export the consignments of matches, furniture, honey, carpet, hing, gems & jewellery, handicrafts and other goods. But, Karachi based shipping companies, working in Pakistan, have suddenly stopped the booking of containers for the export bound goods from the city.
This unwanted decision of the shipping companies on the one hand had increased the problems of exporters and on the other declined the usefulness of the dry port established 25 years back. He said that dry ports in Pakistan were established to facilitate exporters at local level and promote exports through adopting one-window operation to them. But, for KP they have adopted opposite strategy.
He said that transportation of export bound goods through ordinary trucks to Karachi would render millions of exporters, clearing agents, forwarding agents, shipping agents and labourers jobless and the economic conditions of the province would further weaken. He said that the closing down of booking offices of the shipping companies would push KPCCI to isolation from other parts of the country.
He demanded of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Federal Minister for Ports & Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri, Federal Minister for Commerce Amin Faheem, Federal Minister for Finance Hafeez Sheikh, KP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and other officials concerned to take notice of this unconstitutional act of the shipping companies and take stern notice of this discriminatory treatment to KP.
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