Frontier Customs Agents Association has asked the government to make the Azakhel Dry Port fully operational to facilitate Pak-Afghan transit trade.  A four-member customs agents’ delegation, led by President of Frontier Customs Agents Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Central Vice President of All Pakistan Customs Agents Association Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, called on the newly appointed Director of Transit Trade Samiul Haq at Model Customs Collectorate and conveyed their request. 

The delegation recalled that the Azakhel Dry Port was inaugurated two years back, but it was yet to become fully functional. The delegation also asked for operating a freight train from Azakhel Dry Port to Karachi, said a press release received by WealthPK. Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, who is also the Vice President of Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that director Samiul Haq was well aware of the problems of the business community and the Pak-Afghan transit trade issues of the customs clearing agents.

He hoped that Sami would play a key role in solving the transit trade problems. He informed the director about the problems being faced in transit trade. The most serious problem was that hundreds of empty containers with trucks had been parked in open fields for several days, he added. It had created a shortage of trucks in Karachi, and the freight, which used to be Rs 150,000 from Karachi to Jalalabad, was now about Rs 400,000 to Rs 500,000, Ziaul Haq said. The delegation also met the newly appointed Collector of Customs Enforcement Peshawar Moinuddin Ahmad Wani and expressed good wishes.  

Both the two directors assured all possible cooperation and said that they would take steps through mutual consultation to solve the customs agents’ problems. The other members of the customs agents delegation included Senior Vice President of the Association Imtiaz Ahmed Ali, and General Secretary Mian Wahidshah Bacha. 

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk