Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: Interior federal minister Shiekh Rasheed Ahmad paid a brief visit to Torkham border on Friday where he inspected various government departments and met with officials.
Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad arrived at Landikotal wherefrom he drove to the Torkham border. Khyber Rifles Commandant Col, Rizwan Nazeer briefed him on the overall situation on the Torkham border.
The interior minister asked about border fencing, law, and order and talked with the officials deployed at the Torkham border. He showed satisfaction with the overall security measures taken on the border with Afghanistan.
Sheikh Rasheed was accompanied by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader Ameer Khan Afridi.
Col, Rizwan briefed him about the import and export and the ongoing process of the Torkham custom terminal.
Talking on the occasion, the interior minister said that they were gradually bringing change in border management so that they could adopt international standards. He said the Torkham border was playing the role of the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. He said through Torkham border Pakistani exporters could reach central Asian states to enhance trade with the rest of the world.
He said soon they would open four different components offices to make the passengers and loaded containers process easy to cross from and to Afghanistan without any hurdles.
The minister asked the Afghan government to take steps at the Afghan side of the Torkham border to bring ease for transporters and trucks. He said under the vision of prime minister Imran Khan they were bringing a world standard system for import and export so that traders could be benefited and increase export volume.
He said the modern system being installed at the Torkham border crossing would take less time in containers and
passengers clearance.
Security was beefed up on the border during the interior minister’s visit while traffic was suspended for a few hours.
Later, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad went back to Khyber Rifles camp in Landikotal.
