In a major development, Pakistan on Monday abolished the compulsory “Bank Guarantee” that transit trade importers were required to submit to the authorities.
The government has also decided to issue a Temporary Admission Document (TAD) to all those Afghan drivers who commute between the two countries. Many of these drivers drive cargo up to the Indian border Wagha near Lahore in the east.
Officials told Matrix Mag that the condition of the Bank Guarantee – a measure introduced last October – is being withdrawn with immediate effect. Under this arrangement, Pakistan had asked all Afghan importers to submit a US Dollar-denominated guarantee equivalent of the value of their total consignment. The guarantee was supposed to be released once the entire transit cargo was reported to be inside Afghanistan.
The Bank Guarantee severely imperiled Afghan imports via Karachi as most importers found it illogical and against the spirit of the transit trade. Instead of serving the purpose i.e. curbing smuggling as claimed by Pakistan, the transit trade via Karachi suffered a huge setback and decreased substantially.
The TAD will replace the decades-old Road Pass, a travel document issued to Afghan drivers by the Pakistani diplomatic missions. These passes also came to a halt in 2021 as the missions stopped renewing them.
With the latest developments, the Afghan transit trade via Pakistan – the shortest route for Afghan importers – is likely to pick up again.
Pakistan has also agreed to withdraw the negative list – which restricted the import of certain items under the transit trade agreement because – as per government claims – most of the items were being smuggled back to Pakistan.
Now, officials say, Islamabad has asked Kabul authorities to provide a monthly requirement of the goods the country needs and they will all be cleared swiftly without any additional conditions.
