LANDI KOTAL: The condition of legal travel documents for local and Afghan transporters and poor management by the border guards seriously af fected free flow of vehicular traffic at Torkham border on the second day of its reopening on Wednesday, according to sources.

The authorities have made possession of passports and route permits mandatory for Pakistani and Afghan transporters for cross-border movement.

Sources told this scribe that hundreds of vehicles loaded with Pakistani export goods, mostly perishable edible items, foreign goods imported via Karachi port under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement, again got stranded at the Pakistan side of the border owing tostrict implementation of legal travel documents policy.

`Drivers with route permits or passports are given permission to cross the border while people, who don`t posses these documents, are not allowed to go to Afghanistan or enter Pakistan, no matter if their vehicles are cleared by the Custom authorities of their respective countries, said Sabir Khan, a clearing agent.

He said that Frontier Corps authorities also refused to acknowledge temporary cards issued to local clearing agents by the political administration which they would use for their frequent visits to both Pakistani and Afghan Custom of fices for clearance of their import and export goods.

`These restrictions have adversely affected bilateral trade as authorities have refused to allow traders, clearing agents and transporters for their routine and frequent cross-border movement on daily basis,` said Mr Khan.

The transporters later held a protest demonstration at the local press club and demanded lifting of the new travel restrictions.

Shakir Afridi, a spokesperson for thelocal transporters, said on the occasion that most of the Pakistani transporters were without passports and the Afghan authorities too had not made it an obligation for their entry to their country.

He said that the restriction should be lif ted immediately.

Sources said that with the congestion of heavy vehicles near the border crossing, movement of pedestrians was also affected. They said that the newly deputed Tochi Scouts personnel failed to properly regulate traffic and pedestrian movement at the Torkham border.

Control of the border crossing was handed over to Tochi Scouts wing of FC only two days ahead of reopening of the border and Khasadar and Levies forces were ordered to `stay away` from the main crossing point. The personnel of Khasadar and Levies were restricted only to looking after the affairs of immigration.

Officials said that the deployment of Tochi Scouts at such a critical juncture was to ensure perfect security at Torkham border to which the Khyber Agency political administration had also consented.