Peshawar: After more than three weeks of uncertainty in Kabul, Pakistani exporters have resumed exporting items to Afghanistan. Business was halted in many towns after the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital on August 15.
“I haven’t placed any orders in Pakistan for the past 20 days because I was afraid the situation would worsen if the Taliban began conquering big cities,” Afghan merchant Abdul Rahim Qazizai told Anadolu Agency.
Read More: Afghan government seeks permission to schedule flights to Pakistan
“Now I meet with my Pakistan counterparts and place orders for sugar and cooking oil,” he added as he drove from Peshawar to Kabul across the Torkham border.
On Wednesday, hundreds of trucks lined the Khyber Pass, which connects Pakistan and Afghanistan via the Torkham border. They were loaded with food and ready to cross the Afghan border into eastern Jalalabad.
Because of a scarcity of parking on the Afghan side, most drivers had to wait three or four days at the border. However, the long lines show that economic activity between the two countries is restarting.
Read More: PIA to resume commercial flights to Kabul
“I’ve been waiting here for three days and have no idea when my turn to cross the border will come,” said Nadir Shah, who was resting by his truck.
Shah was transporting cement from Peshawar to Jalalabad in his van. Cement, sugar, flour, cooking oil, salt, bananas, and other food products were being transported to Afghanistan by trucks.
Afghanistan is rich in minerals such as copper, gold, oil, natural gas, uranium, bauxite, coal, iron ore, rare earth, lithium, chromium, lead, zinc, gemstones, talc, sulphur, travertine, gypsum, and marble, many of which have remained untapped owing to the US invasion in 2001.
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