A Pakistani delegation, led by Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood will leave for Kabul on Tuesday (today) to hold the final round of talks with Afghanistan on the long-awaited Pakistan-Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) despite the fact that the Prime Minister Secretariat had delayed the approval of summary.
The APTTA had been initiated in Washington in the presence of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was scheduled to be operational from June 12, 2011, as promised by Commerce Secretary before National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce last week.
Sources said that the Commerce Secretary had sent a summary to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for approval to lead Pakistan's delegation to Kabul for talks scheduled under the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Co-ordination Authority (APTTCA). Both countries had finalised the dates after mutual consultations.
Sources said that Prime Minister Secretariat returned the approved summary on May 30, just one day before the departure of 10-member delegation. By that time, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had cancelled all seats reserved for the delegation (on May 29, 2010) because Commerce Ministry did not reconfirm the seats. Commerce Ministry, sources said, used its influence - even the name of Prime Minister for securing seats.
Commerce Minister's Director, Ali Muhammad Shah also tried to contact the Managing Director of PIA, but failed in his mission, because PIA MD was busy chairing Board meeting. Sources said that official members of the delegation will go by air whereas the private sector team has left via land route. Analysts argue that measures to curb smuggling across Afghanistan are not being implemented as the tracking system and biometric system will not be functional for at least six months.
Some members of Parliament have urged the Commerce Ministry not to implement the APTTA until the issues of tracking system and biometric systems are resolved. But the Commerce Ministry apparently is in a hurry to operationalise the agreement already signed by the President of Pakistan as per schedule.
Pakistan has agreed to accept financial guarantee of Afghan banks to be endorsed by the Pakistani AAA and AA ranking seven insurance companies. Parliament Members maintain that insurance companies might give birth to another financial scam as massive as the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL). The company's ex-Chairman, Ayaz Khan Niazi is now behind bars for causing billions of rupees loss to the national exchequer.
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