KARACHI: The top officers of Pakistan Customs, including –Enforcement-South Chief Collector Muhammad Nazim Saleem, Appraisement-South Chief Collector Nasir Masroor Ahmed and Appraisement-West Collector Muhammad Saleem on Wednesday returned from Islamabad after four-day meetings with the officials concerned of the FBR, Finance and Commerce ministries.
Sources told Customs Today that the agenda of meetings was to release some of the imported consignments held by the Appraisement-West during examination, as the importer misdeclared the description and value of the consignments.
They said Appraisement-West Collector Muhammad Saleem asked the collectorate officials not to clear the consignments without taking differential amount. However, the collectorate was facing immense pressure in order to release the consignments.
When contacted, the collectorate officials said they had not held any consignment, adding that Collector Saleem was on his routine visit to Islamabad in which he briefed the FBR and ministries concerned about the smooth working of the collectorate.
The chief collectors often visit Islamabad to meet the FBR high-ups, but it was quite seldom that a collector visited the capital to brief the ministries’ officials.
Interestingly, Appraisement-East Collector Najeebur Rehman Abbasi and Port Qasim Collector Surraiya Butt were not invited to the meetings.
The officials had departed for Islamabad on Saturday and returned to Karachi on Wednesday.