PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday inaugurated Miranshah Bazaar and a National Logistics Cell (NLC) terminal in the Ghulam Khan area of the North Waziristan tribal region.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gov. Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Corps Commander Peshawar Lt. Gen. Nazir Butt were also present, as were parliamentarians from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and other officials.
“It’s a modern bazaar with different facilities and 1,344 shops,” Taimur Afridi, assistant political officer of Miranshah, told Arab News.
The visiting dignitaries later went to the Pakistani-Afghan border in Ghulam Khan and inaugurated an NLC terminal there, he added.
The NLC is Pakistan’s premier logistics company. “The organization’s terminal at the border has space for parking 150 trucks,” Afridi said.
Addressing a jirga (tribal elder’s council), Abbasi said Miranshah “is a gateway to Central Asia and has much significance for regional trade.”
He added: “The government and all political parties are now trying to mainstream FATA. The people of the tribal territories have the same rights enjoyed by people in other parts of the country.”
Malik Habib, a North Waziristan tribesman whose family has been in the business of transporting goods to Afghanistan, said the reopening of the border route was a longstanding demand of the locals.
“Traders here mostly export pulses, flour, sugar and cement, while Afghans mostly supply vegetables, fruit and dried fruit,” he added.
Dr. Sarfaraz Khan, former director of the Area Study Center at the University of Peshawar, said FATA was deeply neglected by successive governments. “It’s good that they’re building markets and shops there,” he told Arab News.
