PESHAWAR - President of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Maqsood Anwar has expressed concern over long queues of trucks and containers loaded with export goods on Ring Road Peshawar, blaming the government and the departments concerned for failing to resolve the issue amicably.
In a statement issued here on Friday, Maqsood said the federal government inaction and mysterious silence toward resolution of this serious issue is unclear and ambiguous. He said the hesitance of government and its institutions is bringing negative impacts on the country’s economic growth and hurting export to Afghanistan and rest of regional countries.
He added the process of export via Torkham boarder to Afghanistan is witnessing declining trend despite of round the clock operation at Pak-Afghan border, which has adversely affected export to Afghanistan and onward Central Asian Republics.
The chamber president also said that business community and exporters had never faced such a situation. But now export has been dropped instead of showing improvement since the 24/7 operation at Torkham border, he said. He blamed that no government institution was ready to take responsibility and resolve the issue, due to which food and perishable items loaded in trucks and containers were becoming rotten, while it is also inflicting hug financial losses to exporters.
On the other hand, he added traffic congestion issues have also been created due to the long queues of trucks and trailers while the rent of trucks was also going up. Maqsood said if there is any irritant on Afghanistan side, then it should be taken up with government of Afghanistan and its relevant institutions to sort-out permanent solution to the issue to ease difficulties of the business community and exporters. The trade volume between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said, is very low, if clearance process of export goods trucks could not be expedited immediately then the existing trade will be further reduce between the two neighboring countries.
The SCCI chief urged the Prime Minister Imran Khan, Advisor to PM for Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment, Abdul Razak Daud, Federal Interior Minister, Chairman FBR, and relevant officials to take effective measures to amicable resolve the issue and remove difficulties confronting business community and exporters aimed to give boost to mutual trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.