KHYBER: Border auth­orities of Pakistan and Afg­h­anistan “amicably resolved” a dispute regarding the placement of a steel board on the Pakistan side, adorned with welcoming words on Wednesday.

Officials at Torkham bor­der said that Afghan au­thorities initially objec­ted to the fixing of the ‘Wel­­come to Pakistan’ boa­rd and also suspended veh­icular traffic from its side while arguing that they were not taken into confidence over an ‘amendment in the border structure’ on Pakistan side.

Officials said that the Afg­han side also raised the issue of restricting their num­ber of patients along with alleged maltre­atment of their nationals coming to Pakis­tan in the name of new border management policy.

They said that Pakistani authorities conveyed to their Afghan counterparts that the number of Afghan patients decreased due to repair and expansion of the Pak-Afghan Dosti hospital at the border crossing while they were also informed that no relaxation would be made with those Afghan nationals who were found trying to enter Pakistan without a valid visa.

They said that the issue of welcome sign boards was later resolved with the Pakistani authorities stepping ‘back a little’ from the point where they had earlier tried to fix the board while the Afghan authorities agreed to reopen their side of the border for vehicular traffic.

They however said that pedestrian movement was not suspended during the times of negotiations while trading activities resumed after mid day.

Pakistani and Afghan authorities had, in the recent past, resorted to an exchange of fire when the Afghan authorities tried to build a security check post near the zero point border crossing.

Historically, both countries had agreed to desist from altering the existing shape of the border crossing point within the limits of at least one hundred metres on both sides while also taking each other into confidence before initiating any such activity.

However, mutual relations soured again in rec­ent weeks when Pakistan ordered expulsion of all illegal aliens, mostly unre­gistered Afghan from its soil in mid September.

The new policy also adversely affected bilateral trade between the two neighbouring countries with Afghan authorities jacking up its import duty on some of Pakistan fresh fruits while Pakistan imposing strict restrictions on imports for Afghanistan under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2023