PESHAWAR    -    Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Maqsood Anwar has stressed the need for removal of impediments to give boost to mutual trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Both the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan should take measures to facilitate business community on both sides of the border in order to enhance mutual trade volume between the two countries, particularly to make the government of Pakistan step to keep open operations 24/7 at Torkham border beneficial for business community and to increase export, Maqsood said in a press statement issued here on Saturday.

He called for pragmatic measures to accelerate the checking and clearing process of export trucks loaded with goods and other items at Torkham border and to ease difficulties of the business community and exporters immediately. He also emphasized the Torkham border management should be strengthened to amicable resolve the issues of exporters and importers.

The government of Pakistan, he said had opened the Torkham border for 24/7, which is a welcoming step but the checking and clearing process is very slow at Torkham station due to lack of proper facilities that had created long queues of trucks and containers loaded with goods items near the border, which is not only affecting export, but also hampering bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he added.

The SCCI chief said that mutual trade volume between Pakistan-Afghanistan is already very low. So, he said the both Islamabad and Kabul should take effective measures to facilitate business community of their countries to meet the mutual trade target between the two neighboring countries.

He demanded of the government to take steps for provision of facilities at Torkham station to give boost to mutual trade volume between Pakistan and Afghanistan under vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He also urged the Prime Minister Imran Khan to issue orders to improve management system at Torkham border to ease the difficulties of business community, exporters and importers and accelerate the mutual trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.