GB prepares proposal for PM committee to restore trade

A 50-day-long protest sit-in intensified on Monday as traders in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) shut down a customs and immigration office in Sost, blocking the Karakoram Highway and stranding thousands of travellers headed to China via the Khunjerab Pass. Traders have suspended all trade and travel activities, demanding the implementation of a two-point agenda related to taxation and stuck import consignments. In response to the crisis, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently announced a one-time amnesty for the stuck consignments and formed a committee, chaired by Federal Minister for Power Division Awais Leghari, to find a resolution. The GB cabinet submitted recommendations endorsing the traders’ demands and asking that the region be declared a non-tariff area. After the federal committee sent the recommendations back for review, the GB chief minister constituted a new nine-member committee on Thursday.