PESHAWAR - Expressing concern over the new Pak-Afghan transit trade pact, the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has demanded the government to resolve the issues of traders and exporters attached with the transit trade.
The demand was made in a meeting held under the chairmanship of SCCI President Zahidullah Shinwari here at the Chamber house on Saturday. Shinwari suggested that a concrete mechanism should be evolved in consultation with the chambers.
Those who attended the meeting included Vice President SCCI Muhammad Taimur Shah, Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (P-AJCCI) Director Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, Additional Director Afghan Transit Trade Dr Saeed Jadoon, Consultant P-AJCCI on transit trade Sana Ikram, Assistant Director Torkhum Dr Ranjan, Transit Trade Group President Gul Afzal Shinwari, Farooq Ahmad and Imtiaz Ahmad Shah. Besides, traders and exporters attached with Afghan transit trade were present on the occasion.
In the meeting they discussed problems of the business community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They informed that the transit trade would be shifted from Pakistan to Abbas port in Iran under the new transit pact, which would badly affect traders attached with the transit businesses and economic position of the country.
They asked the incumbent PML-N-led government to resolve the issues of business community especially those attached with the transit trade and devise any new policies with the consultation of traders' community. "The promotion of bilateral trade relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan and stabilization of economy would only be possible after removal of impediments and problems in way of transit trade," the meeting added.
The office-bearers of SCCI were of the view that presently the country was facing billions of rupees losses in head of rents due to non-functional of Pakistan Railways and NLC while clearing, forwarding and border agents attached with the Afghan transit trade were also become jobless.