February 1, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 28, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: The Central Board of Revenue and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have joined hands to clamp down on the misuse of diplomatic privileges to smuggle high value dutiable items for commercial purposes.

Central Board of Revenue sources said the initiative would entail several preventive measures, including occasional inspection of goods imported by missions who are known to have abused this facility in the past.

The two federal authorities decided to launch the joint initiative after Karachi Customs officials discovered the abuse by at least three diplomatic missions, and found eviden#ce connecting a diplomat at a Central Asian consulate-general with the smuggling of expensive products under the garb of ‘assorted foodstuff’.

Customs sources said evidence was obtained during inspection of a recent shipment, which the Customs staff suspected of containing metal items.

On being informed of the suspicion, the foreign ministry authorities approached the diplomat concerned with the request that he depute a representative to remain present during the inspection of the container in compliance with the Vienna Convention. Under the Vienna Convention 1961, if authorities deem it necessary to inspect a container imported by a diplomatic mission, process has to be carried out in the presence of a representative of the given mission.

Pakistani authorities apparently gave two options to the Central Asian mission, either to disown the suspected container or have it inspected in the presence of a representative. However, the mission did not agree to either of the two options offered and insisted that the container be re-exported.

The Customs authorities then decided to open the container and reportedly recovered large quantities of high value dutiable items, including 12,750 sets of Indian artificial jewellery, 3,366 ball bearings and other manufactured items worth about half million dollars.

When contacted, the Foreign Office confirmed that the foreign affairs ministry and the CBR were cracking down on “this indulgence in spurious activities under the diplomatic cover” but remained tight-lipped about the incident involving the Central Asian diplomat.

A Senior Protocol Officer said in response to the query: “States have their own ways of dealing with such sensitive issues, and a host country would rather request the concerned diplomat’s home authorities to deal with the matter.”