Internews/Peshawar

However, some exporters had to change their routes due to sit-ins of the PTI and its allies and increase by Afghan authorities in their transit in their transit and toll charges in Torkham and routes in Jalalabad.

Officials and traders said that the wheat flour traders were now using the route via Ghulam Khan in Waziristan to consign their goods to Afghanistan as Afghan customs and tax authorities were charging Rs150,000 as Ilm-o-Khabar rahdari (transit tax) from each truck of wheat flour.

The local traders said the informal trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been thriving for many years, which also includes the smuggling of goods originally brought under the Afghan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA). It was hardly affected by the PTI blocked of Nato supplies to Afghanistan since November 23, they said.

Zahidullah Shinwari, president Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI), said the most cited goods dealt in informal trade were livestock, foodstuff, carpets, precious stones and automobile parts.

Director Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI) Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi estimated the size of the informal trade to be $2.5bn which, he said, in other words was equal to the volume of formal trade that roughly translates into $2.4bn.

He said his chamber recently concluded research on the informal trade between the two countries, but it was still impossible to provide any breakdown of the informal trade of $2.5bn into smuggling of transit goods and informal bilateral trade.

However, he said, Pakistan?s share in Afghan transit trade had reduced to 20-30% and around 64% or $1.5bn can be estimated to be the informal trade, whereas $0.9bn can be attributed to transit goods smuggling.

Zahid Shinwari said it was hard to cite measures to check the informal trade, saying there were strong tribal relations across the border and the people along the borders had been carrying out exports and imports across the border for centuries.

Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi said the length and porous nature of the border also made it difficult to control cross-border informal trade while related part of the problem was weak enforcement of law by various enforcement agencies.

However, Mohamed Ishaq, member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Board of Investment and Trade (KPBOIT), admitted that in the prevailing situation the border agencies could not be bucked up to take on informal traders for tightening the noose around their neck, that too during the anti-US and drone attacks sit-in and strikes might create a threat of a backlash which might be worse than the PTI sit-ins against US drone attacks and Nato supplies blockade.