AHMAD NABI
KHYBER:More than seven hundred vehicles, loaded with soapstone and coal, imported from Afghanistan have been stuck at Torkham border for the last eleven days due to lack of certificate of origin, Importers and officials confirmed.
The custom officials in Torkham said that they had been directed by the highup not to clear the soapstone and coal loaded vehicles, imported from across the border without presenting a certificate of origin.
The aim of the fresh regulation, implemented was to confirm the real origin of the product, he added.
The unexpected restriction introduced by the custom officials multiplied miseries of importers and other trading communities, clearing agents and transporters said.
President All Torkham Clearing Agents Association Mujib Shinwari said that without their consultation, the custom department imposed producing of certificate of origin, an obligatory document during the clearing process of soapstone and coal, imported from Afghanistan that was unfair to the business community.
The custom officials should clear the stranded hundreds of loaded trucks through the previous clearing system and then convene a joint meeting of all the stakeholders to sort out an acceptable solution for the matter, he suggested.
Shinwari maintained that sudden implementation of the new regulation will certainly suffer Pak-Afghan bilateral trading.
Because of the new custom rule drivers of the stranded vehicles were suffered and most of them spent Eid-ul-Azha on the Landi Kotal –Torkham road.
They asked to clear the presently parked trucks as the certificate of origin law was made compulsory when they had already crossed-in into Pakistan.
He demanded of the authorities concerned to relax import export policy at Torkham border to enhance business via Torkham crossing.
