ISLAMABAD: A high-level committee tasked with development of Pakistan’s border regions on Saturday held its inaugural session in Islamabad to discuss the challenges facing communities based in the country’s frontier regions, the Pakistani commerce ministry said.

The inaugural session of the committee, which was formed to devise comprehensive strategies for holistic development in these areas, was presided over by Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, according to the ministry.

Key topics that came under discussion at the meeting included tariff rationalization and employment creation, reflecting the committee’s commitment to addressing border communities’ challenges.

“The committee aims to present its recommendations to the Prime Minister within 10 days, signaling a promising start to collaborative efforts for socio-economic development in the region,” the commerce ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan shares a long, porous border with Iran and Afghanistan, with people live along it relying on cross-border trade with little or no government tariffs, quotas, subsidies or prohibitions.

Islamabad last year announced restrictions on the informal trade to discourage smuggling of goods and currency in order to support the country’s dwindling economy.

Pakistan’s trade with China mostly takes place through formal channels, while the country’s trade ties with India, another neighbor it shares border with, remain suspended since 2019 over the disputed region of Kashmir.

KARACHI: A fire broke out at a garment factory in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Saturday, rescue officials said.

The blaze erupted on the ground floor of the garment factory in Zarina Colony in the New Karachi area, according to Rescue 1122 service.

“One fire truck is actively participating in the operation,” a Rescue 1122 spokesperson said, adding that another fire tender has been called to the site.

No loss of life has been reported in the wake of the fire.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and the main commercial hub, is home to hundreds of thousands of industrial units and some of the tallest buildings in the South Asian country. 

The megapolis, known for its fragile firefighting system and poor safety controls, witnesses hundreds of such incidents annually.

In Nov., a blaze at a shopping mall killed around a dozen people and injured several others. In April last year, four firefighters died and nearly a dozen others were injured after a fire broke out at a garment factory, while 10 people were killed in a massive fire at a chemical factory in the city in August 2021. 

In the deadliest such incident, 260 people were killed in 2012 after being trapped inside a garment factory when a fire broke out.