KHYBER: Following the sudden implementation of the Temporary Admission Document (TAD), over 1,000 Pakistani trucks have been stranded on the Afghan side of the Torkham border since August 1 as the drivers didn’t possess the new travel document and were caught unawares by the decision.

Sources at the border told Dawn that customs officials only allowed the transporters with TADs to travel through the Torkham border while carrying different trade merchandise, and didn’t permit those who had yet to acquire the document.

Officials said around 200 loaded vehicles with drivers possessing TADs crossed over to Afghanistan daily since August 1 when the condition of TAD was implemented.

The sources said the sudden implementation of the TAD condition caused traffic congestion on both sides of the border as only 20 per cent of drivers had so far acquired the document since it was made mandatory for them by both the Pakistani and Afghan officials.

Drivers denied entry for not possessing new travel document

Officials of both the countries agreed to allow the transporters to acquire TAD as most of them were either without their national passports or had difficulties in acquisition of visas.

Afghanistan transporters have long been complaining about long delays in acquisition of passports, also alleging they were asked to pay illegal money in excess of the visa fee for Pakistan both in Kabul and Jalalabad. Pakistani and Afghan transporters insist most of them are unable to pay $100 fee for the TAD and that too only for six months as most of them were employed with transporters on a limited monthly salary.

Meanwhile, a group of Pakistani drivers while addressing a news conference at the Landi Kotal Press Club on Monday said around 1,500 local drivers, who had taken sugar to Afghanistan before August 1, were now stranded on the other side of the border as they had not yet acquired TAD.

Tayyab Jan, a driver, said most of them had transported sugar to Afghanistan after Pakistan lifted a four-year-long ban on its export to Afghanistan, not knowing they would be barred from entering back to Pakistan for nor having TAD.

He said Pakistani immigration authorities demanded legal travel documents or TAD upon their return from Afghanistan, which they didn’t possess, and were thus denied entry to their own country.

Abid Khan, another driver, said they were allowed to cross the border into Afghanistan only after they showed passports with none of them being warned or cautioned about the strict implementation of TAD after August 1. He said now they were left high and dry while returning back to their country.

He said a majority of the transporters from both the countries were still not aware about the new travel document.

He said most of them had exhausted their pocket money, and were urgently needed to be relocated to Pakistan.

The drivers demanded of the Pakistani immigration and customs authorities to grant them one-time waiver so they could process their travel documents and get their empty vehicles back from Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2024