PESHAWAR: The federal government of Pakistan is likely to task the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) with regulating human traffic at Torkham border crossing in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the country at the Pak-Afghan border.
The relevant officials said yesterday that the Civil Secretariat Fata would soon request the federal government to extend the relevant sections of the Federal Investigation Agency Act, 1974 for permanent deployment of staff in Torkham town to regulate human traffic between the two countries.
They said the FIA laws were being extended to facilitate the establishment of terminal at Torkham that will cost around Rs300m. Construction of the terminal would be started on war footing after completion of legal formalities within one month.
Civil Secretariat Fata will take up the case with ministry of foreign affairs to inform the Afghan government about the construction of the proposed facility at the border town. The secretariat would also request Prime Minister’s secretariat for the provision of funds for the project.
A decision regarding extension of relevant laws was taken in a meeting held at the civil secretariat Fata in Peshawar on last Thursday, where senior officials of the relevant authorities were in attendance.
The officials said the facility required 415 kanals of land.
The federal government had planned construction of facility at Torkham long ago but the project didn’t see light of the day due to Shinwari tribe’s claim that the property belonged to them.
An official said a summary about extension of the relevant sections of the FIA Act would be sent to the federal government for the approval of President Mamnoon Hussain.
He said the civil secretariat would bear the cost of establishing facilities for FIA.
Currently, FIA can’t operate in tribal areas. In 2003, the federal government had tried in vain to depute FIA staff at Torkham without legal cover.
Internews
