ISLAMABAD: Customs formations across Pakistan, including Appraisement South and Customs Enforcement, have effectively ground to a halt due to severe staff shortages and structural dysfunction, resulting in massive revenue losses for the national exchequer and plummeting morale among honest officers, officials say.
The crisis has left key collectorates powerless, with Chief Collector Appraisement South and three collectors operating without adequate authority or resources, according to multiple officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Appraisement South, which handles a wide range of critical functions including administration, research and development, recovery, legal affairs across all platforms, bonds, auctions, Groups 1 through 8, PRV, MIS, and CHO, is operating with just one principal appraiser and two appraisers to manage all these portfolios.
The situation is equally dire at Appraisement East, where Collector Moinuddin Wani oversees operations with only one additional collector and a team of newly appointed assistant collectors. The additional collector is severely overburdened and has been given symbolic charge of examination. The entire collectorate relies on just two appraisers—Saud Akhter and Malak Hasim—and a single principal appraiser, Rasheed Khan.
At Appraisement West, often referred to as the “mother collectorate” due to its size and significance, Collector Mona Mehfooz manages with only two additional collectors, one of whom is assigned to examination duties. The litigation load is described as “extremely high.” The collectorate’s appraising staff includes three principal appraisers—Imran Gul, Razia Bhutto, and Junaid Ahmed—alongside appraising officers Zia ur Rehman, Rab Nawaz, Jabbar Solangi, Mudassir, Mahira, and Wajiha.
SAPT, recognized as the largest collectorate in Pakistan, is operating with only two principal appraisers—Farooq Ahmed and Abdul Samad—and appraising officers including Shahid Iqbal, Qaiser Chatha, Zaman Jamali, Nazia, Raja Shakeel, Imran Zafar, Muhammad Kashif, Junaid Ahmed, and Altaf ur Rehman. Superintendent Soha Siddiqui handles administrative duties.
At Appraisement South, the Research and Development wing has been completely eliminated, significantly weakening checks and balances. Recoveries have been severely affected due to staff shortages, and the PRV system remains inactive.
The Chief Collector is reportedly powerless and cannot transfer personnel from the Central Assessment Hall to other collectorates, further compounding the staffing crisis.
In a concerning development, young and inexperienced officers have been assigned to conduct “second reviews” of import consignments. Importers are given the option to either go for a first review before a principal appraiser or directly proceed to a second review. According to officials, approximately 90 percent of importers choose to go directly for second review before these inexperienced assistant collectors, whom they are able to manipulate.
These assistant collectors are also overburdened with work, and the second reviews have now become part of official data, raising questions about the integrity of the review process.
Collectors at Appraisement East, Appraisement West, and SAPT do not have examination or assessment functions under the current system. Under the Faceless Customs Assessment (FCA) system, consignments are being scanned—but officials allege the entire system has been deliberately paralyzed to secure the “green channel” for certain protected importers.
The Collector HQ Faceless System position was supposed to create a research and development mechanism within the faceless system. However, after just two months in the role, Mateen Alam was transferred, and the seat has remained vacant since. Consequently, there is no check and balance system on FCA operations.
Currently, 80 appraisers and 15 principal appraisers are working in the Faceless System. Officials note that if groups were established within the faceless system, 50 appraisers would be sufficient instead of the current 80.
Despite a revenue shortfall exceeding Rs 200 billion, Chairman FBR Langril is reportedly focused on securing clearance through the green channel rather than securing government revenue, officials allege.
The Enforcement Collectorate, headed by Chief Collector Basit Abbasi and Collector Umar Shafique, faces similar challenges. Umar Shafique’s jurisdiction covers SAPT, Appraisement East, Appraisement West, Port Qasim, AFU, and 10 off-dock terminals. He has just one Deputy Collector—Tariq Shaikh—and four appraisers: Khizar Khursheed, Inamul Haq, Faiz Ahmed, and Khawar Hashmi. The collectorate has only one additional collector, Yasir Kalwar.
Operations have been significantly delayed, with containers at SAPT and KICT taking approximately one month to be grounded. Importers are suffering substantial losses due to these delays.
The situation is no better in other regions. Enforcement Lahore, headed by Collector Agha Saeed, has only three appraisers, while Enforcement Peshawar, led by Collector Ayesha Wani, operates with just one appraiser.
Chief Collector Enforcement Basit Abbasi and Chief Collector Appraisement South Wajid Ali have made multiple requests to higher authorities for additional staff for their formations, but no action has been taken.
In March 2025, seven appraising officers were assigned to the newly created Facilitation Mechanism (FM). Yaqoob Mako serves as Director General of FM, with Tausif Gorchani as Additional Director and Shakeel Ahmed as Deputy Director. The six appraising officers include Zeeshan Qamar, Amjad Khan, Tauseef Ahmed, Muhammad Inayatullah, Abdul Ghaffar, Muhammad Naeem, and Sultan Bhutto.
However, the FM is reportedly powerless—they cannot serve contravention notices or lodge FIRs. Their only function is to send detection alerts to respective collectorates.
Notably, in November 2024, FBR shut down Customs Intelligence and created the Facilitation Mechanism, which was activated in April 2025. From September 2024 to April 2025, all clearances were conducted without any check and balance.
It is noteworthy that the Member Customs Operations for the last three years has been a person with no experience in appraisement or enforcement, leaving Chairman FBR to personally oversee customs operations.
Prior to the launch of FCA, senior and experienced officers were reportedly sent to the Admin Pool, while certain handpicked officers were given control of the entire faceless system.
An official has called for an investigation into how many contravention reports—and against whom—were rejected on the instructions of FBR Islamabad. Additionally, questions have been raised about consignments that were flagged for examination by the Risk Management System (RMS) but had these recommendations rejected, allowing them to continue clearing through the green channel.
It may be mentioned that on the instructions of Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, all institutions were cooperating with Customs, and smuggling was controlled to a great extent. However, officials allege that on the appraisement side of Customs, authorities were misled into believing that corruption had been eliminated—when in fact, the system has been changed and revenue losses continue unabated.