Pakistan and Japan hold counterterrorism consultations in Tokyo

ISLAMABAD: A representative from Tehran told a Pakistani parliamentary panel this week an estimated daily economic loss of $2.2 million was being caused by Iranian trucks stuck on the border with Pakistan over the past six months due to new customs rules, a press release said. 
Pakistan last year made it compulsory for Iranian transporters to provide a bank guarantee equivalent to the customs duties and taxes imposed on goods being delivered to the National Logistics Corporation (NLC) Dry Port Quetta via Taftan, a border crossing with Iran. Tehran does not demand similar guarantees from Islamabad.
“One of the most pressing issues discussed was the ongoing crisis at the Pakistan-Iran border, where over 600 trucks carrying trade goods have been stuck due to customs officials demanding court orders,” the Senate Standing Committee on Finance said in a press release after its meeting. 
The Iranian representative at the meeting said each truck carried goods worth approximately $11,000 and the delay was costing traders about $100 per day per truck, which ultimately raised the price of goods for consumers. 
“The drop in the number of trucks crossing the border in the past six months has led to an estimated daily economic loss of $2.2 million,” the statement quoted the Iranian official as saying. 
The senate committee would now write a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urging him to take up the matter at the next cabinet meeting.
“This issue has reached a critical point. It is not only a matter of economic losses but also a matter of national pride. The situation is deeply concerning for the country as a whole,”  said Saleem Mandiwalla, the chairman of the committee. 
Pakistan imports from Iran stood at $943.29 million during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Official figures for current annual trade were not available but local media outlet Business Recorder, citing Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, last year reported bilateral trade worth over $2 billion.
Earlier this month, Pakistan and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at increasing bilateral trade volume to $10 billion.
Pakistan and Iran have had a history of rocky relations despite a number of commercial pacts, with Islamabad being historically closer to Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Their highest-profile agreement is a stalled gas supply deal signed in 2010 to build a pipeline from Iran’s South Fars gas field to Pakistan’s southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh.
Despite Pakistan’s dire need of gas, Islamabad has yet to begin construction of its part of the pipeline, citing fears over US sanctions — a concern Tehran has rejected.
Pakistan said it would seek waivers from the US, but Washington has said it does not support the project and warned of the risk of sanctions in doing business with Tehran.
Despite facing possible contract breach penalties running into the billions of dollars, Islamabad last year gave the go-ahead for construction of an 80-km (50-mile) stretch of the pipeline.

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political and Public Affairs Rana Sanaullah on Wednesday rejected opposition parties’ claims the government had pressured a local hotel in Islamabad against holding a two-day conference of an opposition alliance, urging its leaders to name the official who may have reached out to the hotel management.
The conference followed opposition parties forming a grand alliance under the banner of Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz-i-Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) — or the Movement for the Protection of the Constitution of Pakistan — after jailed former premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s failed negotiations with the government. The talks were meant to secure the release of political prisoners along with the formation of judicial commissions to probe two major anti-government protests by PTI that turned violent.
Earlier, during a press conference outside a local hotel in the capital, opposition leaders from the PTI, including Omar Ayub Khan, Asad Qaiser, and Salman Akram Raja, along with former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, alleged that the government was pressuring the hotel administration to cancel their booking.
“Which hotel person said the government told them not to allow the conference to take place?” Sanaullah asked during a talk show on Geo TV.
“Tell me who was it who did not allow [the hotel to host the conference]. Which person from the government? Which minister? Which officer said no?“
Sanaullah urged the opposition leaders to tell the truth instead of hurling allegations at the government.
“If anyone called and told the hotel to not to allow the conference to take place, tell us, we will contact that person,” he said, highlighting that the opposition leaders knew the government had not issued any such directive.
Meanwhile, on the same TV show, Abbasi said the government was afraid of the conference since it had not been properly elected in the last general elections.
He vowed that the opposition alliance would continue with the second day of the conference today, Thursday, from 10am onwards.