PESHAWAR: Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI) has demanded of the Prime Minister Imran Khan for removal of hurdles in trade with Afghanistan to promote both bilateral and Afghan transit trade.

In a joint statement issued here Sunday, the office bearers of the joint chamber expressed concern over the unavailability of GPS tracker devices for Afghan transit cargo stuck at Karachi.

Ahmad Shah, a Director of PAJCCI from Afghan side and Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi a former director of the organization from Pakistan said that due of unavailability of GPS tracker devices for Afghan transit cargo stuck 8500-9000 consignments (containers) in Karachi. They said that since supply monopoly for GPS tracker devices awarded exclusively to (TPL) by Pakistan customs authorities, but the supplier ( TPL ) is failed to supply enough GPS tracker devices for Afghan Transit cargo which caused all transit trade cargo stay / sleep as idle at in Karachi ports for months. The said cargo is on queue for supply of GPS tracker devices, but unfortunately TPL release maximum 250-300 GPS tracker devices on daily basis which is not enough to coop with 9,000 containers lying at Karachi ports.

According to sources in the business community of Afghanistan, the cargo / consignments landed in June 2020 are still lying at Karachi ports. With passage of each single day there is detention penalty of USD 100-150 is charged/container. Apart from detention charges there is also demurrage charges of USD 25/container per day. Afghan transit trade cargo is faced with loss of US$ 1 one million per day due to detention and demurrage charges. Since the cargo is stuck due to failure of (TPL) then why Afghan traders shall pay the detention and demurrage charges. The delay is caused due to failure of TPL which is not the fault of Afghan traders, therefore TPL shall be held responsible for all the detention & demurrage charges caused to transit trade cargo.

The transit cargo is also stopped by irrelevant authorities near to Peshawar for the past 2 months and released after payment of handsome amount to them. Some private persons force the drivers to pay Pak Rs 50,000-60,000 / truck otherwise they will not release/allow the trucks to move to Torkham border. Despite continues efforts made by the private sector including Afghanistan diplomatic missions in Karachi, Peshawar and Islamabad, but all in vein.

Afghan traders also urged of proper cooperation that is causing long delay for crossing process of transit cargo at Torkham border to cross to Afghanistan. Before Covid-19 at Torkham border there were 700-1000 trucks crossing the border at Torkham to Afghanistan on daily basis, but now only 150-200 trucks are released on daily basis.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020