PM seeks end to corruption at checkpoints

Order comes after QCCI complained of ‘rampant rent seeking’ by officials

QUETTA: Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered authorities to take steps to eradicate corruption at checkpoints along two key highways, the Karachi-Chaman highway and the Karachi-Torkham highway, that end at the Afghanistan border.

The premier, in a statement, stated that he had received information from different sources regarding the rampant payouts sought from goods’ transporters by members of state agencies and entities including the police, customs, coast guard and paramilitary forces.

It can be “safely presumed” that the money extorted from transporters and traders along the Karachi-Torkham and Karachi-Chaman highways “is shared with the upper hierarchy at different levels”, the statement read.

The order comes after a complaint by the Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (QCCI), including by its official on live television, regarding the “unreasonable demands made by officials despite the transporters having the necessary documentation”.

Following the directives, authorities have revised and developed their operating procedures, reduced the number of checkpoints, and converted the nearby locations into ‘multi-agency’ posts.

The 813-kilometre long Karachi-Chaman highway travels through Quetta in Balochistan and stretches to the border town of Chaman.

Meanwhile, the 1,820-km Karachi-Torkham highway extends from Karachi to the border town of Torkham in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The significance of these borders is that the majority of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan passes through these two routes. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2019.