KARACHI: The Director of Transit Trade Wajid Ali has issued an alert that Monitoring & Enforcement Units (MEUs) of Customs collectorates were not responding to the alerts communicated by the authorized tracking company M/s TPL Trakker Limited in respect of Afghan Transit consignments.

Wajid Ali said the MEUs were assigned the task of taking cognizance of alerts communicated by tracking company regarding Afghan Transit consignments.

Reports received from M/s TPL Trakker Limited show lack of response by MEUs of the collectorates.

Keeping in view sensitivity of the matter Wajid Ali has communicated with Chief Collector Enforcement South, Director General Transit Trade and Collector MCC Preventive that timely response be assured to the alerts communicated by tracking company in respect of transit consignments in compliance of relevant provisions of Tracking & Monitoring of Cargo Rules, 2012.

According to details, 23 alerts were communicated with MCC Port Qasim but only 09 calls were responded;  MCC Hyderabad responded to just 38 calls out of issued 372 alerts; MCC Quetta was issued 914 alerts but only 121 calls were responded; MCC Peshawar acted on 104 calls out of 1205 alerts; MCC Multan ignored 152 alerts while MCC Preventive responded to only 401 calls out of 1605 alerts issued by M/s TPL Trakker regarding Afghan transit cargo.

An official informed Customnews.pk that MCC Preventive was extremely short of resources and staff and it was not possible for the Collectorate to respond to tracking alerts with such thin strength.

Afghan Transit Trade has been a prime source of smuggling in Pakistan as in past a large number of ATT consignments were pilfered in Pakistan, which deprived national exchequer of revenue but also adversely impacted the competitive market.