THE recent disclosure before a Senate standing committee about the alleged abuse of the Afghan transit trade facility by a major courier company raises more questions than it answers.

The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation in the FBR has told the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that his department had raided two godowns belonging to a major courier company in July and recovered a large consignment of cargo marked as destined for Afghanistan from Karachi.

On the face of it, such cargo has no business sitting in a godown in Lahore or Rawalpindi, where the raids were conducted. But the Directorate of Afghan Transit Trade in the FBR says it has a fully reconciled record of all containers that left Karachi for Afghanistan over the past one year, and nothing went astray.

Know more: Smugglers abusing Afghan Transit Trade facility: FBR

Tracker technology in the containers would alert the authorities the moment the truck took an unauthorised route. Diverting cargoes meant for Afghanistan is a practice that now belongs to the past they say, and the only way cargoes from the Afghan transit trade can now enter Pakistan is if they are round-tripped back into the country after entering Afghanistan. Such cargoes are not carried in containers marked with stickers saying “in transit to Afghanistan”.

Moreover, the individual bringing the charge in this case is the same person who raised the flag on Nato containers going astray a few years ago, a case that turned out to be a red herring. That allegation was very damaging until it was proven to be false.

So the case is an intriguing one, pitting the credibility of authorities from the same government agency against each other. Which directorate are we to believe? Government officials have been known to lie and pursue private agendas of their own, and big corporations are not above indulging in illicit activity to boost their revenues.

What we have here is a dodgy allegation against an equally dodgy trade. Only a fuller investigation, by a third party, into the facts of the raid, and the cargoes recovered from the godowns, will tell us whether the mechanisms governing the Afghan transit trade need to be strengthened, or whether officials in charge of customs intelligence are running a private racket of their own.

In the meantime, the standing committee would be well advised to summon the Afghan transit trade directorate and ask them what they know about this whole affair.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2014