OrionHunter
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Leaving politics aside, here's a peek at the roaring business being conducted by many in Pakistan from pilferage of NATO supplies. Now that the routes are temporarily closed, these vested interests are waiting with bated breath for the routes to open.
Here's why...
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan want to get war supplies rolling across Pakistans borders again. So do Pakistanis in places high and low from officials trying to balance the nations budget to black marketeers who stand ready to plunder the NATO-contracted trucks and oil tankers expected to shortly resume passage into Afghanistan after nearly six months of closed border crossings.
Multiple beneficiaries
For traders such as Baz Muhammad Afridi, happy days will return when the blockade ends. Afridi, 46, who vends looted goods in a bazaar on the outskirts of Peshawar known informally as the U.S. market, nearly abandoned his business because of dwindling stock.
Afridi said he sold food, daggers, computers and engineering equipment pillaged from supply convoys. We were getting quality goods, technological gadgets and American flags at very reasonable prices, he said Tuesday.
But the supply suspension nearly stopped our business, and it becomes hard to meet even daily expenses, he said. Lower-middle-class people like me will be happy with the reopening of NATO supply lines.
On the macroeconomic level, Islamabad needs help, too. The $1.3 billion has been penciled into the proposed budget, according to Finance Ministry officials.
And there are other beneficiaries. The Pakistani military sometimes called Army Inc. because of its sizable stake in commerce, corporations and land holdings indirectly controls 30 percent of the NATO oil tanker contracts, according to local transporter associations. The military, which played the key role in the NATO-provisioning negotiations with U.S. and Afghan army commanders last weekend, declined to comment on its share of the supply business.
Tribal-area militants will profit, too: They demand protection money from the companies that haul the freight. And they launch attacks to get their slice of whats inside the steel sea-shipping containers that begin their journey at the port of Karachi and travel hundreds of miles through perilous territory.
Even the Taliban is the beneficiary. . . . They get weapons and ammunition when they attack the containers, said a black-market trader in NATO goods, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of Taliban reprisals. This is one of the financial sources of the militants.
Not to be left out, police and other local authorities extract bribes to allow convoys to pass, transporters say. Its part of doing business for companies that are hoping to put 8,000 to 10,000 tankers and trucks back on the roads to reach land-locked Afghanistan.
___________________________________________________________________
It would be a sad day once the Americans leave Afghanistan in 2014. Business will go bust and there would be no more freebies!
And so the pressure on the government to open the supply routes to make hay whilst the sun shines! 
e-Ariana - Todays Afghan News
Here's why...
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan want to get war supplies rolling across Pakistans borders again. So do Pakistanis in places high and low from officials trying to balance the nations budget to black marketeers who stand ready to plunder the NATO-contracted trucks and oil tankers expected to shortly resume passage into Afghanistan after nearly six months of closed border crossings.
Multiple beneficiaries
For traders such as Baz Muhammad Afridi, happy days will return when the blockade ends. Afridi, 46, who vends looted goods in a bazaar on the outskirts of Peshawar known informally as the U.S. market, nearly abandoned his business because of dwindling stock.
Afridi said he sold food, daggers, computers and engineering equipment pillaged from supply convoys. We were getting quality goods, technological gadgets and American flags at very reasonable prices, he said Tuesday.
But the supply suspension nearly stopped our business, and it becomes hard to meet even daily expenses, he said. Lower-middle-class people like me will be happy with the reopening of NATO supply lines.
On the macroeconomic level, Islamabad needs help, too. The $1.3 billion has been penciled into the proposed budget, according to Finance Ministry officials.
And there are other beneficiaries. The Pakistani military sometimes called Army Inc. because of its sizable stake in commerce, corporations and land holdings indirectly controls 30 percent of the NATO oil tanker contracts, according to local transporter associations. The military, which played the key role in the NATO-provisioning negotiations with U.S. and Afghan army commanders last weekend, declined to comment on its share of the supply business.
Tribal-area militants will profit, too: They demand protection money from the companies that haul the freight. And they launch attacks to get their slice of whats inside the steel sea-shipping containers that begin their journey at the port of Karachi and travel hundreds of miles through perilous territory.
Even the Taliban is the beneficiary. . . . They get weapons and ammunition when they attack the containers, said a black-market trader in NATO goods, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of Taliban reprisals. This is one of the financial sources of the militants.
Not to be left out, police and other local authorities extract bribes to allow convoys to pass, transporters say. Its part of doing business for companies that are hoping to put 8,000 to 10,000 tankers and trucks back on the roads to reach land-locked Afghanistan.
___________________________________________________________________
It would be a sad day once the Americans leave Afghanistan in 2014. Business will go bust and there would be no more freebies!
And so the pressure on the government to open the supply routes to make hay whilst the sun shines! e-Ariana - Todays Afghan News
