KHYBER: Contrary to repeated official pledges and rosy promises about an increase in trade with Afghanistan through Torkham border and provision of facilities to traders, the quantum of bilateral trade has been on constant decline since 2016.

According to official figures, the quantum of bilateral trade with Afghanistan has plummeted to a mere $800 million in comparison to $1.3 billion per annum in 2015-16, thanks to a lack of interest and coordination between various government departments operating at Torkham.

Importers, exporters, custom clearing agents and transporters with whom this scribe interacted on the matter said that visits by different government dignitaries to Torkham and a series of consultative meetings proved to be an exercise in futility and a mere photo session.

“I have been attending such meetings at Torkham, Peshawar and even Islamabad since 2016 but all such occasions proved to be a mere ‘rhetoric’ as nothing concrete is done to alleviate the sufferings of traders and transporters while the trade is on the constant decline,” Haji Jabir Shinwari, patron-in-chief of All KP Exporters Association and a founding member of Khyber Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told this scribe.

Traders allege govt departments not serious in addressing their issues

He said that government had no will to promote bilateral trade with Afghanistan and solve the issues faced by traders and transporters.

He said that around 120 of the total 131 exporters had shifted their businesses outside Pakistan during the last three to four years due to the unfriendly trade policies of the government. He added that lucrative offers were made to him by some traders-friendly countries for taking out his capital from Pakistan.

Haji Jabir said that he had stopped attending official meetings regarding promotion of trade with Afghanistan via Torkham, Kharlaachi, Ghulam Khan and Chaman as those meetings had ‘dealt a blow’ to the trade rather than promoting it due to the anti-traders attitude of the government officials and relevant departments.

Zahidullah Shinwari, a two-time president of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, wondered as to why the clearance of export goods slowed down when trade with Afghanistan had declined to a mere 20 per cent in comparison to the start of construction work on the so-called state-of-the-art custom terminal in 2015.

He said that trade was at a ‘fast track’ when infrastructure was and limited facilities were available to traders but it had suddenly nosedived when officials started tall claims about provision of modern facilities along with the completion of road from Peshawar to Torkham some seven years ago.

He said that despite holding a series of meetings, no government official or department had so far tried to reach to the root cause of the problems, which were hampering bilateral trade with Afghanistan.

“We have failed to devise ways for better trade with Afghanistan despite favourable signs from the neighbouring country,” said Mr Shinwari. He added that Pakistan was yet to sign a free trade, preferential trade agreement with Afghanistan besides reducing taxes and tariffs for the collective benefit of traders of both countries.

He while government was seeking dollars, local traders with their personal efforts and business trust could earn and bring billions of dollars if sincere and serious efforts were made to improve bilateral trade with Afghanistan.

Mujeebullah, an exporter and clearing agent, said that introduction of new border management policy in 2016 proved to be the ‘mother of all ills’ for local traders and transporters as that policy hugely impacted the ‘free trade’ going on with Afghanistan since the country’s independence.

He said that instead of creating hurdles in the name of border management, the government should pursue a policy of free and easy trade with war-affected Afghanistan as it was in need of cheap and speedy receipt of goods consignments from Pakistan to its every corner.

He cited traffic congestion due to slow goods clearance by custom authorities and electronic scanning of every vehicle by National Logistic Cell, little parking space for loaded and empty vehicles at Torkham, security checking at the zero point and denial of permission to an assistant driver or cleaner without visa into Pakistan as some of the major issued faced by local traders, transporters and custom clearing agents.

He said that obstacles to swift clearance of trade goods considerably cut down custom revenues while the relevant departments were least interested in removing those lacunas as there was a serious lack of coordination among the various government entities operating at Torkham.

“It seems that different government departments and agencies, stationed at Torkham, are in a ‘mad’ run to outdo each other in discouraging local traders for carrying out bilateral trade with Afghanistan and also discrediting their own departments,” said a young custom clearing agent, who wished not to be named.

National Logistic Cell officials, however, said that the custom terminal would be completed by the end of current year to address the issues of parking, traffic congestion and slow goods clearance.

The newly-appointed chief collector (custom) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fayyaz Anwar, also had during a meeting at Torkham on April 8 gave a firm assurance to all the stakeholders that concrete steps would be taken to remove hurdles to trade between the two neighbouring countries as soon as possible.

Traders and transporters at Torkham, however, said that nothing concrete had happened since then and they were still faced with delays in goods clearance while many among them were deserting the business due to lack of facilities and interest by the official quarters.

They also doubted NLC claims about completion of the custom terminal by the end of the year and said that there was still a lot to be done as the pace of work on it was not up to the mark.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2023