KARACHI: The volume of Afghan Transit Trade through Pakistan is on the rise once again after going through a short period of declining trend.
Pakistan, which charges no transit fee to facilitate Transit Trade, has remained the most favored transit trade corridor for import cargoes to Afghanistan. This is so because Pakistan offers the shortest land route to two major Afghan cities of Jalalabad and Qandhahar across Torkham and
Chaman Customs Borders Stations respectively from the ports of Karachi.
The volume of Transit Trade, however, reportedly decreased for a short period of time but has started to increase once again. In fact, there is a substantial increase in the volume of commercial Transit cargoes to Afghanistan because of the priority that FBR attaches to it and the presence of a Directorate general Transit Trade to facilitate the Transit Trade exclusively.
The prompt handling of Transit Trade at the Karachi ports with a goods clearance within 24-36 hours; the installation of tracking device on all the bonder carriers; the well-defined route; the 24-hour clearance at Torkham and Chaman stations and the last but not least the 100 percent examination of the cargo in case of mis-declarations or TPL alerts in cases of tampering of doors sealed at Karachi ports make Pakistan the most secured and thus a favored trade transit corridor for Afghan importers. The 100 percent tracking and scanning of Afghan cargoes at Karachi ports make Pakistan the most economical, secure and the shortest Transit Trade corridor.
