Kabul, Islamabad asked to remove trade barriers

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): Businessmen have urged Afghan and Pakistani governments to remove hurdles to cross-border trade, which should not be sacrificed at the altar of politics.

The call came at a meeting on business matchmaking, attended by traders from Afghan and Pakistani traders in the capital of southern Kandahar province on Thursday.

Afghanistan Consul-General Arif Bitani and industrialists attended the event.

Haji Mohammad Sadiq Momand, SAARC Chamber of Commerce deputy chief, businessmen from Pakistan and Afghanistan had come together in Kandahar for the first time to promote bilateral trade and find solutions to their problems.

SAARC planned to establish a large industrial in Kandahar, he said, calling the southern city an ancient commercial hub. The park will be set up close to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.

Momand claimed Pakistani entrepreneurs did not face any problem in Afghanistan. By the same token, he said, Afghan traders should also be granted all required facilities by Pakistan.

The ACCI deputy head claimed bilateral trade had been harmed by Pakistan’s wrong policies. Current tensions were detrimental to the economies of the neighbours, he belied.

In the not-so-distant past, Alokozay recalled, about 2,000 Afghans would travel daily to Pakistan for medical treatment. But now they preferred visiting India because of Pakistan’s undue restrictions.

He hit out at the Afghan government for its failure over the past 16 years to resolve the issue of constant power supply to Kandahar -- a vital facility needed to strengthen industrialisation of Kandahar.

While welcoming SAARC’s decision on building an industrial park in the city, he sought concrete cooperation from Pakistan in this regard. The site is close to Chaman, Quetta and Central Asian republics.

A trader from the Chaman town of Balochistan, Haji Daroo Khan, blamed both governments for creating problems for entrepreneurs -- though traders and people on both sides of Durand Line did not have any issue.

Gen. Raziq accused Pakistan of always shutting transit routes around the fruit harvest time in Afghanistan, a move that inflicted heavy losses on orchard owners and merchants.

He said Afghanistan could take similar steps to harm the Pakistani businesspeople transporting goods to or from Central Asia. However, the police chief explained, they avoided teasing the Pakistanis.

The Pakistan consul-general in Kandahar acknowledged better Afghan-Pakistan relations were central to boosting bilateral trade and commerce.

Bitani promised conveying relevant Pakistani authorities the problems identified by Afghan traders. Efforts would be made to resolve the issues.

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