'Historic day': PM Imran inaugurates 24/7 border crossing at Torkham
September 18, 2019
Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurates the 24/7 Torkhan border crossing on Wednesday. — DawnNewsTV
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday formally inaugurated the opening of the Torkham border crossing for 24 hours.
The premier was accompanied by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan as he inaugurated the Integrated Transit Trade Management System. He was also given a briefing on the border terminal.
Addressing a press conference on the occasion, Prime Minister Imran said the round-the-clock opening of the border crossing will facilitate trade in the region.
"I consider this to be a very historic day," he said, noting that trade with Afghanistan had jumped by 50 per cent during the trial of the 24/7 border opening alone.
He said the region will be transformed as soon as peace is established in Afghanistan and the trade activities will reach as far as Central Asia.
"The lives of people in this region will be changed," he said, adding that Peshawar will become a regional hub of business activities which will generate employment opportunities.
The prime minister also inaugurated the Pak-Afghan Friendship Hospital at Torkham. According to
Radio Pakistan, Afghan patients arriving in Pakistan via the crossing point will be provided medical facilities in the hospital.
✔@PTIofficial
Construction of Pak-Afghan Friendship Hospital in
#Torkham, Khyber District is completed. Prime Minister
@ImranKhanPTI will be inaugurating it today
Imran Khan is also expected to address tribal elders.
Pakistan, for the first time,
opened its Torkham border with Afghanistan round the clock earlier this month on a trial basis, to enhance bilateral trade and facilitate movement of pedestrians across the border.
The National Logistics Cell (NLC), in coordination with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has
completed arrangements for the round-the-clock, trans-border trade terminal.
The work to upgrade the terminal began after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, on his last visit in June, requested Prime Minister Imran to ease trade between the two countries through the border crossing.
The NLC said that the Torkham border terminal had brought about a paradigm shift in regulating two-way movement of passengers and cargo and had helped curbing the cross-border movement of miscreants, illegal trade, narcotics trafficking as well as backward flow of transit trade goods to Pakistan.
According to the NLC, the border terminal has generated significant economic activities in the area which is largely benefiting the local KhugaKhel Shinwari tribe.