Pak-Afghan bus service to be launched

LAHORE: Amidst repeated allegations and counter allegations by the Afghan and the Pakistan governments over cross border terrorism, the two countries have decided to launch a Pak-Afghan Dosti (friendship) bus service between Peshawar and Jalalabad. 

According to a senior foreign office official, the regular bus service between Pakistan and Afghanistan will resume after 27 years on May 26. They informed that five buses are to operate daily from each side and a terminal has been established at Karkhanu bazaar on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of the NWFP.

One bus of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation will run between the two cities on alternate days, he said.

The two countries have also agreed to launch another bus service between the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta and the Afghan southern city of Kandahar. The official said that the Afghan airline, ARIANA, would also start service for Quetta and Peshawar, which would bring the people of the two countries closer.

According to Pakistan's Transport Director Sajid Khan Jadoon, he had sent travelling documents of those intending to travel by the Dosti Bus to the federal communications ministry and a date to inaugurate the bus service would be announced after the documents are cleared by the relevant authorities.