GILGIT: The federal government on Wednesday began talks with protesting traders who have been staging a sit-in for the past two weeks blocking the Karakoram Highway (KKH), a key CPEC route, suspending travel and trade between Pakistan and China through Khunjerab Pass.

The traders of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) are agitating against the federal government and the customs authorities for not implementing the GB Chief Court order restraining collection of income tax, sales tax and additional sales tax on imported items from China.

According to officials at Pakistan Immigration Office at Sost, some 90 stranded foreign tourists were allowed to travel to China through Khunjerab Pass on Wednesday. A representative of the protesting traders Javed Hussain said only foreign tourists had been allowed to travel to China as their visas were closed to expire. He said the protesters had decided to continue their sit-in till fulfillment of their demands.

90 stranded foreign tourists allowed to travel to China

Thousands of people from trade bodies, transporters, labourers, customs clearing agents, political workers are participating in the protest sit-in.

They alleged that it was due to “stubborn attitude” of the Pakistan Customs officials that the trade between Pakistan and China had been suspended for the last four months.

Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and GB Amir Muqam presided over a high-level meeting in Islamabad which was attended by the representatives of the GB traders, comprising President of the Importers and Exporters Association Muhammad Iqbal, GB Chamber of Commerce President Imran Ali, Hunza Chamber of Commerce office-bearer Muhammad Raziq and a senior businessman Iqbal Pathan.

The representative from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Pakistan Customs, GB Chief secretary Abrar Ahmad Mirza and other federal and GB government officials also participated in the meeting in which the GB traders presented their demands and emphasised to implement Chief Court’s order which stopped the two organisations from collecting taxes on goods imported from China through Khunjerab Pass.

The traders told the participants of the meeting that the trade activities between Pakistan and China would resume only after acceptance of their legal and constitutional demands. They said that they were ready to submit post-dated bank cheques without bank endorsement of these taxes to custom clearance of the stranded consignments at Sost Dry port till confirmation of the order issued by GB Chief Court.

The officials of the FBR and Pakistan Customs also presented their input.

Mr Iqbal told Dawn that in the meeting it had been decided that the minister would meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss the issue and a find a wayout.

Earlier, GB Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan also met the FBR officials and discussed the issue.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2024