ISLAMABAD: The sixth meeting of the Task Force of Pak-Afghan Parliamentary Friendship Group was held at the Parliament House under the Chairmanship of Mohammad Shehzad Arbab, Special Assistant to Prime Minister.
The meeting held indepth discussions on ways to improve trade with Afghanistan with particular focus on fast tracking cross border movement of cargo vehicles and pedestrians, finding avenues of enhancing trade in the wake of limited banking operations, digitalization of operations at border crossing points.
Shehzad Arbab said that it was essential to move forward with a clear time bound plan of action to arrest the dwindling trade with Afghanistan.
He stressed that smooth and timely movement of trade vehicles should be ensured as it was essential to avoid decay of perishable trading goods and lowering cost of business.
He further remarked that more and more crossing points should be opened to facilitate trade and movement of people across the border.
Shandana Gulzar, MNA/Member of the Committee said that we could not allow anybody to reverse the gains made in terms of trade and connectivity with Afghanistan.
Immediate actions were the need of the hour to address the legitimate concerns of traders, she added.
Moreover, the Committee also directed Ministry of Interior to come up with a plan of setting up separate counters for patients, businessmen and ordinary travellers to facilitate timely cross border movements of people.
The meeting also instructed State Bank of Pakistan to share proposals for promoting trade with Afghanistan in the absence of banking channels with particular documents on barter trade, enhancing trade in Pakistani rupees and third country payment mechanism.
The meeting came to the conclusion that the ministry responsible for promoting bilateral trade should come up with a clear plan of action in consultation with other stakeholders and share it with the Committee in its next meeting.
The Committee will make sure that all procedural or operational issues in implementation of the action plan would be done away with in a timely manner to expand trade with Afghanistan.
The meeting was attended by the Members of the Task Force and Institutional stakeholders from FBR (Customs) and Interior ministry.
