KARACHI, July 11: A huge quantity of banned items and high-tariff goods imported under Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) are making their way back into the domestic market thereby causing injury to local industry.

Customs documents made startling disclosure wherein a large number of containers loaded with ATT cargo leaving Karachi ports for customs posts near Pak-Afghan border surprisingly take less than a day to come back to destination of their origin.

According the documents a trailer loaded with container of ATT cargo left Karachi International Container Terminal on September 28, 2007 for Peshawar and entered the terminal again the next day.

There is a long list of such flying haulages of ATT container cargo from the Karachi ports to the Pak-Afghan border posts of customs.

The official list has also given such super-speed haulages of ATT container cargo at the Qasim International Container Terminal. A box left the terminal on September 3, 2007 and re-entered the port on September 4, 2007.

A customs official requesting anonymity told Dawn that there were even instances where only documents were sent to customs post at Pak-Afghan border for official clearance of the consignments but the container with ATT cargo never left the city limits.

As per the government policy National Logistic Cell and Pakistan Railways are only authorised carriers for the ATT cargo haulage.

However, both are also allowed to sublet the job to private bonded carriers, who are registered with them.

The customs sources said that most of the people and importers engaged in ATT are Pakistanis and not Afghans.

They further said that decrease in genuine import of any item for domestic market will show equal increase in ATT import volume of the same commodity.