Afghan students to get special cards for Pak entry

KHYBER AGENCY – The Pakistan border authorities have decided to issue special border crossing cards to the clearing agents operating at Torkham crossing and Afghan students studying in Bacha Mena area of Pakistan near the Afghan border.

Shamsul Islam, passport naib tehsildar at Torkham, while sharing the details said that it was a pilot and limited arrangement, adding that the RFID cards would be issued to verified clearing agents and only those students studying in Bacha Mena, Torkham.

The cards issued to the clearing agents would be valid for three months that could be extended to a six months period, he added.

It is to be mentioned here that the clearing agents association, Torkham has been repeatedly asking for provision of permission without documents while crossing the border keeping in view the nature of their business.

Likewise, Afghan families residing near the Pakistani border in Afghanistan send their children to Pakistani areas for study. Last year due to the border security measures, they were barred from entering Pakistan without legal documents that suffered their studies.

The forces and administration officials while responding to the demand of both the clearing agents and the Afghan students decided to issue them special cards so that they could move to either side of the border without any inconvenience.

Through a public notice, issued by the administration, the concerned people were asked to contact Nadra office, Torkham for registering their selves for the cards. The notice further read that the issuing process would be initiated from Monday and those clearing agents and students verified by the Torkham custom centre and administration of schools, respectively, would be eligible to get the facility.

Chairman Torkham Clearing Agents Association Mirajuddin Shinwari appreciated the step taken by the border authorities and said that it would certainly boost trading activities at the border. To avoid any mismanagement in issuing of the card, Shinwari suggested to take on-board the agents association in authentication process of the agents.

Source: The Nation