QUETTA: Chamber of Commerce Quetta, Baluchistan has announced a strike at Quetta NLC Dry port, Chaman and Taftan borders stations in protest against the alleged high-handedness of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Quetta.
President of the Chamber Fida Hussain said I&I Quetta staff were intercepting vehicles loaded with tradable goods, even smaller vehicles distributing these goods were also being apprehended. This practice is discouraging legal trade.
The announcement of strike and demand of replacing Director I&I Quetta came after an FIR was lodged against a particular importer.
As per details, I&I officials intercepted a consignment and the owner of the goods showed a GD (proof the consignment was legally cleared), which pertained to an earlier consignment imported by the particular importer, which had been cleared in October and reached Karachi after being verified by all the check posts.
Alamgir Durrani, Vice Chairman All Pakistan Customs Agents Association, said that the importer’s consignment was cleared months ago and reached the destination. If someone was misusing that GD, there was no justification in lodging FIR against the legitimate importer.