ISLAMABAD: The Directorate General of Transit Trade on Friday lodged two FIRs in a unique case of pilferage of non-defence reverse cargo of the US Army during the transit of 22 containers from Torkham to the Karachi Port. The goods, which were declared in the container at Torkham, were found missing when the consignments reached the Karachi Port for onward shipment to Dubai. All the 22 containers were found empty, which means that the goods they were carrying have been offloaded inside Pakistan. The US Embassy has been told by the FBR about this fraud, considered to be the largest-ever case in the category of US Army’s reverse cargo pilferages.The FBR sources said that two consignments of 22 containers, whose papers consisted of containerised generators and their accessories, entered Pakistan through Torkham for transit but when they reached the Karachi Port all of them were found empty. This is the third such incident in the last two months. In one such case, eight containers and in another case one container was caught with goods missing.On Friday, the Directorate General of Transit Trade lodged two FIRs in the latest case of pilferages of non-military reverse cargo of US Army. Those mentioned in these FIRs include bonded carrier M/s. Port Connection (Pvt) Ltd and the authorised agents M/s Peerzada Service International, M/s Ghani’s International and M/s Multitrans Logistics (Pvt) Ltd. It is said that M/s Ghani’s International, which is an authorised representative of the US Embassy, had submitted its case for clearance of 22 containers of US Army’s reverse cargo. These containers were declared to have contained huge power generators and other accessories for transit to the Karachi Port for onward shipment to Dubai. During inspection at Torkham, the declared goods were found in these containers, but when they reached the Karachi Port they were found empty. The FBR authorities inspected these containers in the presence of US Embassy representatives to conclude that the generators and other goods were removed during transit from Torkham to Karachi. It is believed that the pilferage took place with the connivance of the bonded carrier and authorised agents. This is not only a case of huge revenue loss, it is also a serious violation of transit trade facility offered to the US Army, ISAF and Nato by the Government of Pakistan. The repeated incidents of pilferage of goods from US Army’s reverse cargo have become a serious cause of concern for the FBR authorities.In recent years, there have been reports of hundreds of Nato containers gone missing during their transit from the Karachi Port to Afghanistan via the Peshawar-Torkham transit route. The Rangers in Karachi had told the Supreme Court a few years back that about 19,000 containers had gone missing. It was also claimed that a shipload of arms and ammunition was brought to Karachi and its whereabouts were never ascertained. The US Embassy in Islamabad had, however, refuted the media reports suggesting 19,000 containers belonging to the US and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had been stolen from the Karachi Port. Pakistan serves as the key transit route for the US and ISAF forces in the landlocked Afghanistan. Pakistan and the US have signed a deal allowing military supplies to travel into Afghanistan till the end of 2015.
