Delay in border pass issuance hamper trade

Tourists, traders need passes to go to China, but G-B govt slacking on issue.

GILGIT:

The Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government has not yet issued border passes to traders and tourists intending to visit China, sources said on Friday.

It has been nine days since Pakistan officially opened its border with China, however the government has not issued border passes to traders so far, said Abdur Rehman Bukhari, general secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan Overseas Chinese Association (G-BOCA), a body of Uyghur ethnic minority Muslims who migrated from Sinkiang province of China to Gilgit city and Rawalpindi before 1947.

Now totalling around 5,000 families, the community continues to maintain links with their relatives in Kashgar and other parts of Sinkiang.

The strategic Karakoram Highway (KKH) connects Pakistan with China via the Khunjerab Pass in G-B. Every year, the Pakistan-China border is closed for trade and tourism between the two friendly countries on November 1 and reopened on the 1st of May, when the snow melts away at the 16,500 feet (5,030 meters) high Khunjerab pass, through which KKH passes.

“But this time around there is no progress in this connection,” said Bukhari.

Bukhari said that owing to the delay in issuance of passes, not only ties between the people of the two countries affected, but also the trade.

Earlier this year, in an attempt to boost trade with China, the Gilgit-Baltistan government had announced a reduction in the fee for border pass from Rs2,500 to Rs1,500.

However the delay in issuing passes has overshadowed the importance of this move.

The home secretary could not be immediately contacted for an official version on the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2011.