Peshawar         -       Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Establishment Arbab Shehzad on Tuesday visited Torkham border to resolve the issue of stuck up containers at Peshawar and Torkham.

PM’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Affairs Muhammad Sadiq and senior officers of the ministries of commerce, foreign affairs, interior, FBR, IG FC and DG National Logistic Cell (NLC) also accompanied him.

During the meeting, Arbab Shehzad was briefed on the issue of stuck up containers in detail and the arrangements at the border for the people to people contact and the ease of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Presently around 3000 export and transit containers are stuck up in Peshawar whose clearance on priority basis is necessary to improve the bilateral trade relations.

On the occasion, Arbab Shehzad said that improving bilateral trade relations and people to people contact with brotherly Islamic country Afghanistan was the part of the vision of the incumbent government. “We will take all necessary measures to remove hurdles in the smooth operations of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he added.

After detailed discussion, it was decided to increase the number of containers up to 800 per day to be cleared in order to decrease the backlog. Further, all stakeholders also agreed to increase export volume to Afghanistan and to streamline the trade processes.

Earlier, Special Assistant to PM held meeting with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in Peshawar to resolve issue of stuck up containers at Peshawar and Torkham.

Shehzad Arbab is the head of Task Force of the Executive Committee of Pak-Afghan Parliamentary Friendship Group (PFG).

Shandana Gulzar, MNA, secretary interior, foreign Secretary, Secretary health, Secretary Commerce, chairman FBR, chief secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, chief secretary Balochistan and DG NLC are members of the Task Force.