Peshawar – The President of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), Fazl Muqeem, has stressed the need for signing a free trade agreement to improve Pak-Afghan bilateral trade. He also urged Islamabad and Kabul to review the current duties and tariff structure and reduce them to an optimal level. The SCCI chief called for pragmatic steps to ease doing business and for involving the chamber and business community before implementing new rules and policies.
Fazl Muqeem expressed these views during a meeting with a delegation of traders from Khushal Bazaar, Gur Mandi Peshawar at the chamber’s house on Saturday. The delegation was led by Saifullah Khan, a member of the SCCI Executive Committee.
The meeting was also attended by SCCI Vice Presidents Jalil Jan and Shehryar Khan, executive members, and office bearers and members of Gur Mandi Khushal Bazar Peshawar, including Haji Sher Ali, Sher Afzal, Fariqullah, Shafqat Mehmood, and Imdad.
The traders raised serious concerns about the closure of seed supplies from trade routes, including Torkham, Kharlachi, and Ghulam Khan; unnecessary checks on dates; imports from Iran at various checkpoints; obstacles in the supply of pesticides from Multan and Kasur in Punjab; unfilled craters left by SNGPL after laying new pipelines; difficulties in obtaining visas for China; and other issues.
The SCCI chief assured the delegation that he would raise all these issues with the relevant authorities to resolve them amicably.
Earlier, the SCCI chief had promptly taken notice of the gas-related issues and contacted SNGPL General Manager for the Peshawar Region, Waqas Shinwari.
He informed the official about the traders’ complaints. Taking swift action, the SNGPL GM assured that the issues would be resolved by the following Monday and invited the traders to his office to discuss the matters in detail.
