Landlocked Afghanistan will now be able to export goods to India through Pakistani territory after Islamabad ratified a landmark transit trade agreement with Kabul.
Landlocked Afghanistan will now be able to export goods to India through Pakistani territory after Islamabad ratified a landmark transit trade agreement with Kabul.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement, approved during a meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani yesterday, will give Afghan goods access to India through the Wagah land border route and Karachi and Qasim ports.
Under the agreement, Afghan trucks will be allowed to take goods up to Wagah and the two ports, from where Indian importers will receive the consignments and carry them further using their own sources of transportation, information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told a news conference after the cabinet meeting.
"The agreement is being undertaken under obligations under international law that allow transit trade routes to a landlocked country through a neighbouring country with ports. The international law binds all signatory countries to provide this facility and it is in force since 1921," Kaira said.
"The agreement does not allow Indian exports to Afghanistan through the Wagah border or any land route through Pakistan," he said.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement was inked in July to replace a similar pact signed by the two countries in the mid-1960s.
Afghan trucks will deliver their cargo at the Wagah land border between Pakistan and India.
Afghan trucks are currently stopped at the border with Pakistan and not allowed to go to the Indian frontier.
"On their way back, Afghan trucks will not be allowed to carry Indian goods back to Afghanistan. But on a reciprocal basis, Pakistani trucks will be allowed to ply through Afghanistan to the central Asian states, Iran and Turkey," Kaira said.
Pakistan could earn around $2 billion under the agreement.
Afghan goods will be transported in sealed containers fitted with tracking devices to prevent smuggling.
"The goods will be re-examined and certified after entering Pakistan at the Torkham border post," Kaira said.
The new agreement contains the latest custom laws that were drafted after seven rounds of extensive discussions.
All stakeholders, including the defence ministry and the private sector, had been taken on board, he said.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has directed officials of the Federal Bureau of Revenue to take steps to curtail smuggling, Kaira said.
Talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan on the pact had earlier been deadlocked over the issue of granting access to India to use Pakistani land routes for transporting its goods to Afghanistan.
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