May 04, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1429

KARACHI, May 3: Customs officials called off their strike on Saturday after lengthy deliberations allowing normal movement and clearance of import and export goods at the Karachi Port and Port Qasim.

The negotiating team from the customs side consisted of Chief Collector Munir Qureshi and Collector Preventive Mohammad Yahya and from the protesting officers’ side included Shamim, Aurangzaib Shah, Tayyab Hasan, Rana Saddaqat, Mohammad Tahir and Mukhtar Husain.

The Model Customs Collectorate (Preventive) through an office order on Wednesday suspended seven senior preventive officers and 18 guards (sepoys) for their alleged involvement in clearing around 165 containers during August 2006 and June 2007, from QICT at Port Qasim.

As a result of these negotiations the authorities agreed to provisionally reinstate three senior preventive officers and eight sepoys under an office order issued late Saturday evening. These officers and customs staff were found to have little role in releasing 185 boxes without duty payment.

It was also transpired in talks between the two sides that the fate of the remaining three senior preventive officers and 10 sepoys will be decided by a three-member investigating committee. The committee members will jointly investigate with the directorate general of Intelligence and Investigation about the involvement of these customs officers in clearance of 165 boxes without duty.

According to details out of these containers 81 were destined for the upcountry dry ports and 84 were meant for Karachi. However, for quite some time nobody knew about their whereabouts and even Customs Administrative Reform (Care) working under Model Customs Collectorate remained silent, official sources said.

As per the law any cargo, loose or containerised if not cleared or claimed within 30 days after arrival at the port will have to be auctioned but in this case no authority knew about their whereabouts for long time and suddenly customs intelligence dug out this scam involving clearance 165 boxes on fake documents and without paying customs duty worth millions of rupees from the QICT, customs sources said.

The Customs Preventive Officers Association has taken the stand that since these containers had been cleared on fake goods declarations with no machine number and signature of customs officials the responsibility totally fall upon the custodians of the cargo, the QICT and not the customs.