October 10, 2019
The Afghan authorities have denied fake reports that circulated yesterday claiming their inability to keep the Torkham border crossing open for 24 hours and instead from 9 am till 7 pm only. Debunking the false news, an announcement released by the Ministry of Finance, Kabul, on their Facebook page yesterday stated that , “The Afghan Government reiterates its commitment to keep the Torkham gate operations on 24 hours bases to facilitate the inflow and outflow of trade. All facilities are in place to process the incoming and outcoming commodities according to relevant laws and procedures. We encourage all traders to declare their consignments for Customs processes at any govern time. The Customs Administration of Afghanistan is well prepared to process the consignments on time and with no unnecessary delays.”
A story in The Express Tribune yesterday had mistakenly reported the fake news and attributed Afghan authorities’ failure to keep the crossing open round the clock to their lack of staff and required resources. However, now denied by Kabul’s Ministry of Finance, such false and unverified reports appear only to contribute towards destabilizing bilateral relations. Last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan had formally inaugurated the round-the-clock opening of the border crossing and the Afghan Government in response had eagerly welcomed the move. The recent statement by the Ministry reinforces the government’s commitment to keep the flow of trade smooth by keeping the crossing open 24/7.
It appears that, despite the recent improvement in the two neighbors’ state-to-state relations, the continuing challenge the two will have to be wary of is how fake news is also used as an instrument to misguide the public opinion and taint public perception. The responsibility thus lies on the media houses of both countries to always verify and cross-check before releasing any report. This is because the challenge is then exacerbated by how fast dissemination of news, once reported, occurs on the social media where debunking each and every source and claim later becomes nearly impossible. Hence, it is also a civic responsibility of every individual to cross-check every political news of state-to-state relations, particularly, before sharing on their social media.
