KARACHI: About 16 appraisers and principal appraisers are retiring in 2017 while 29 appraisers and assistant private secretaries have been promoted as principal appraisers which will leave the Pakistan Customs in a severe shortage of appraising and examination staff. Since the shortage will badly affect the flow of import clearance therefore the promoted officials are still performing the duties of appraisers which is a violation of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) order notifying promotion of these officials as principal appraisers.
Senior customs officers are in a fix as they cannot afford moving appraisers from assessment despite the fact that these have been promoted to ensure the smooth clearance of imported consignments but, on the other hand, FBR’s orders can also not be violated.
An official said that over 200 persons had been hired to fill the gap but it would take months before these new inductees could be given responsibilities. The official said that there was just one solution to this problem that the principal appraisers should be assigned the assessment along with appraisers as it happened in the past. The official said experienced officers such as principal appraisers at assessment stage would ensure proper and efficient assessment while new inductees could be trained working with principal appraisers.
A senior officer said appraisers and principal appraisers are both in BS-16, so there is likelihood that the responsibility of assessment should also be given to principal appraisers along with appraisers. The principal appraisers, retiring in 2017, include Abdullah Dombki S/o Haji Illahi Bux Dombki, Shayam Lal S/o Hakmat Rai Wadwani, Muhammad Sahib Qiranuddin Khan S/o M. Salmanuddin Khan, Iqbal Hussain S/o Anwar Hussain, Azim Khan s/o Zarya Khan, Sikandar Ali Junejo S/o Muhammad Pinyal Junejo, Syed Abdul Hafeez S/o S. Abbas Hussain, Riaz-ur-Rehman Sehto S/o Haji Qurban Ali Sehto, Mehtab Ahmad S/o Muhammad Ahmad, Masuod-ul-Hassan S/o Muhammad Zaheer Barq, Syed Javed Ahsan S/o Syed Ahsan Bari and Zahid Pervaiz S/o Muhammad Shafi.
