Trade with China halted as Khunjerab Pass protest in PoGB enters third week

Trade and travel between Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan and China via Khunjerab Pass have been suspended for 23 days due to a protest sit-in in Sost. Demonstrators demand tax exemptions and clearance of goods stranded for over a year.

Islamabad: The trade and travel between areas of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan (PoGB) and China through Khunjerab Pass continues to remain suspended for nearly three weeks now amid the ongoing sit-in protest on Karakoram Highway.

The protest sit-in, called by the Tajir Ittehad Action Committee and supported by local trade organisations besides opposition parties and religious groups in the region, is being held at Sost, disrupting trade activities between both countries. The business activities at the Sost Dry Port also remained suspended as the sit-in entered its 23rd day on Monday.

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The protestors have called for exclusion of residents of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan from income, sales and other federal taxes on products imported from China via Khunjerab Pass, Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn reported.

Furthermore, the protesters are demanding customs clearance of 280 consignments stuck at Sost Dry Port for over a year under a one-time amnesty scheme.

They have warned that the protest would not end until their demands are implemented. While addressing the protesters, PML-N Hunza President Rehan Shah said that the people of PoGB have for long been raising demand for their constitutional and legal rights. He claimed that political, religious, and trade organisations back these demands as PoGB has been denied constitutional and legal rights for the past 70 years.

PPP local president Zahoor Karim was quoted by Dawn as saying that the residents of PoGB should only be asked to pay tax after the region gets representation in Pakistan’s National Assembly and Senate. He mentioned that “economic murder” of residents of PoGB will not be tolerated.

“The FBR has introduced policies to deprive GB people of their economic resources. Trade between Pakistan and China has been closed for a year, and goods worth billions of rupees are stuck at Sost Port — some damaged by rain and others expired,” he said.