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GILGIT: Trade and travel operation between Pakistan and China through the Khunjerab Pass has reopened as traders called off the 68-day-long protest sit-in staged in Sost, blocking the Karakoram Highway (KKH), on Saturday after an agreement with the federal government.
Gilgit-Baltistan traders had been staging a sit-in to press the authorities for exemption of GB people from paying sales tax, income tax, and other federal taxes on imported items from China through the Khunjerab Pass, clearance of stuck consignments at Sost Dry Port, and withdrawal of cases.
Negotiations held in Islamabad between GB traders’ representatives, including GB Supreme Council Chairman Ashfaq Ahmed, Abbas Ali, Kamran Ghazi, Maulana Sharafaruddin, Advocate Saleemuddin, Ebad Nagari, and Gulsher Khan, and the committee formed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to address concerns.
The PM’s committee, headed by federal Minister for Energy Awais Leghari, comprised federal ministers Rana Sanaullah and Amir Muqam, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, GB Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan, GB assembly lawmaker Advocate Amjad Hussain, and representatives from the NLC and FBR besides security agencies.
