KARACHI: Negligence of the import/export guardians has been witnessed, as substandard consignments of areca nut (chaliya) are being cleared without forensic examination by the Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Appraisement-West, Appraisement-East and Port Muhammad Bin Qasim at all the three terminals, including Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT), Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) and Qasim International Container Terminal (QICT).
Sources informed this scribe that despite clear orders of honourable court that none of the consignments of such items including chaliya is to be cleared without proper laboratory test, the consignments of substandard chaliya are being cleared by all the field formation collectorates, and the practice goes unchecked.
They added that the court orders were not being followed during the clearance of substandard consignments.
Sources further disclosed that an influential gang was behind the illegal practice and it was also enjoying full support of the customs officials who – instead of referring the consignments of substandard chaliya for laboratory tests – clear those against taking a handsome amount of money as “bribe”.
More interestingly, the high-ups of all three field formation collectorates are not aware of the fact that dozens of substandard chaliya consignments were being cleared from their respective collectorates.
It is pertinent to mention here that the clearance of substandard chaliya on one hand is like playing with the lives of the people, while on the other hand, it was a sheer violence of court orders.
