LANDI KOTAL: Hundreds of vehicles, either empty or loaded with export items, crossed over from Afghanistan into Pakistan on Friday after Pakistani officials relaxed an order regarding a bar on travelling without proper travel documents.

Officials said that transporters possessing route permits issued by the Pakistani consul general in Jalalabad or his Afghan counterpart in Peshawar had been allowed to bring trade merchandise into Pakistan in their vehicles registered in Afghanistan. 

Before grant of the temporary relaxation, the chief of the Afghan Transporters Union, Haji Qasim Arab, told Dawn that over 1,000 vehicles had been stranded on the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing because their drivers didn’t have the passports and visas required to cross over into Pakistan.

Many Afghans may have crossed the border through less frequented routes

He said the vehicles were mostly loaded with fruits, vegetables, coal and soap stone and were stopped by the Afghan authorities because the drivers didn’t have travel documents other than temporary route permits issued by officials at either the Pakistan Consulate General in Jalalabad or the Afghanistan Consulate General in Peshawar.

The chairman of a Pakistani transporters association, Haji Azeemullah, said his group had submitted applications to both the local political administration and the Frontier Corps for a temporary relaxation in the rules regarding travel documents so that the fresh fruits and vegetables in the vehicles could be stopped from going to waste.

Conceding that the Pakistani and Afghan transporters were facing genuine problems, the security and political administration officials granted them temporary permission, enabling over 300 vehicles stranded on the Afghan side of the border crossing to enter Pakistan after Friday prayers.

Meanwhile, border guards and immigration officials at the crossing continued their strict checking of travel documents of all the Afghan nationals aspiring to enter Pakistan on the third day of the restrictions unilaterally imposed by the government of Pakistan.  

Officials of the political administration said that around 1,200 Afghans with valid visas had been allowed to enter Pakistan on a daily basis since June 1.

The officials, however, expressed concerns that the restrictions could encourage the Afghans not possessing valid passports and visas to enter Pakistan through other border crossings and less frequented routes.

Sources said that hundreds of Afghans were seen entering Pakistan through less frequented routes during the last couple of days. 

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2016