The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said that transport companies doing business with Afghanistan are suffering financial losses owing to stoppage of hundreds of trucks at Torkham, Pakistain-Afghanistan border.`The truckers are suffering financial losses of hundreds of thousands of rupees daily because Frontier Corps has stopped their trucks loaded with commercial goods and items in transit to Afghanistan at Torkham border and Takhta Beg checkpost, SCCI vice-president Ziaul HaqSarhadi said on Monday.
In a joint blurb issued by Mr Sarhadi and SCCI president Afan Aziz, they demanded of the government to ensure speedy checking of consignments on route to Afghanistan under the Afghan Transit Trade.
`We are not against the government`s decision of stopping NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
supplies, but it should take appropriate measures to ensure that goods in transit and under regular trade to Afghanistan are not affected,` they said.
They said that the delay in clearing goods by FC had affected trade with Afghanistan. They said that FC hadstopped consignments comprising cooking oil, brake oil, mobile oil, motor oil and grease, whereas, from among the local items the security personnelhad stopped trucks loaded with chemicals for washing carpets.
As a result, each truck was losing Rs3000 daily, they said, adding that the shipping companies were also suffering $15 to $30 daily losses per truck. They said the border security forces and customs authorities needed to improve their liaison, speeding up the clearance of trucks on way to Afghanistan.
`We recognise that strict checking is meant to ensure that NATO goods are not transported to Afghanistan,but the authorities should also recognise that they have not recovered a single item meant for NATO from the trucks transporting commercial items,` they said.
They said that members of the business community held meetings with the FC and Customs authorities explaining to them the SCCFs concerns, but the meetings remained without positive result for the affected businessmen.
Similarly, the matter was also raised with Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men.
and Federal Commerce Minister Amin Faheem, but the contacts did not materialise the required results, according to the blurb.