KARACHI: Passengers coming to Karachi by air alleges illegal seizure and confiscation of food stuff and other items, import of which on commercial scale is banned recently by the Federal Government.
The government issued SRO 598(1)/2022 wherein 38 items were declared Luxury items including Chocolate, Dry Fruits, Cheese, etc. The barter trade of these items if imported through land routes is permitted as barter trade so not involve any currency and only goods are exchanged.
This was aimed at controlling the increase in price of US$ against Pak currency and ban was on opening LCs for these items for import in commercial scale.
According to JIAP Customs, they have
Seized 5 kilogram of food stuff from a passenger in view of said SRO. A photo of items confiscated was also released which shows chocolates, biscuits of different companies. The passengers maintains that these were in few dozens and meant for gifts to relatives.
They brought these items while returning from job overseas after a year or more and in no way are in commercial quantity and thus application of SRO 598(1) is not justified and only causes harassment to overseas Pakistanis.