KARACHI: A meeting of the first Joint Technical Working Group (JTWG) of Pakistan and Afghanistan transit trade and security issues will be held on July 26th (today) in Kabul.
Authorities in Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to discourage the incidents which hinder transit trade and cause problems for the traders and people living in the border areas.
Source informed Customs Today that the group will ensure sovereignty of the two country and will jointly work to stop incident like Torkhum border in future.
The Joint Technical Working Group (JTWG) will also keep check and balance over the smuggling, human trafficking, illegal border crossing to be fetched at the lowest. In case anything goes wrong the Joint Technical Working Group (JTWG) of Pakistan and Afghanistan will also ensure continuity of the Afghan Transit Trade and all border activities at all cost.
The source further informed that both Pakistan and Afghanistan is also willing to establish a hotline to be in contact at any time. All the border security officers, Pakistan and Afghanistan Transit Trade body, Customs, FIA and other official will also exchange their telephone and fax numbers to be in touch in case of any wrong going situation, added source.
The Pakistan delegation to this meeting will be led by Director General Military Operations DGMO, representatives of the concerned ministries, customs officials, and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officers incurring other officers of the concern departments.
It may be recalled that on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Tashkent on 24 June 2016, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and the Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani had agreed to constitute a high level bilateral mechanism at the level of foreign ministers and include two national security advisers for consultation and coordination on issues including Pak Afghan Transit Trade, security, movement of people and vehicles between the two countries and other related issues. It was decided that the mechanism will also have a joint technical working group to deal with the mutual concerns.
