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India-Pakistan
Pak gummint suspends US supplies to Afghanistan
2012-01-27
As I recall, we've reached the point where the majority of our supplies do not go through Pakistan, so it's not quite the threat it used to be...
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday informed the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Commerce that the government has also suspended United States supplies to Afghanistan following ban on the clearance of ISAF/NATO containers to Afghanistan.

FBR Customs chief Dr Naeem Ijaz Qureshi told the committee headed by Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan that the suspended supplies also included those made to the US forces operating in Afghanistan in the wake of November 26, 2011, unprovoked airstrikes on two Pakistani border posts in Mohmand Agency. When committee members inquired about the competent authority which directed the FBR to stop clearance of supplies to NATO/ISAF forces operating in Afghanistan, FBR Acting Chairman Mahmood Alam, FBR Member Taxpayer Audit Hafiz Muhammad Anis and Dr Naeem Ijaz Qureshi were not aware about the written or verbal directives to the FBR in this regard.

The acting FBR chairman requested the committee to give some time for responding to the inquiry. Khurram directed the FBR to clearly give the name of the authority on whose directives the FBR had suspended NATO/ISAF supplies and also explain whether the FBR had any written instructions from any authority to implement such decision.
It's not just the stopping of supplies, it's the pilfering. Read on:
Meanwhile, the FBR Member Taxpayer Audit and head of the probe committee Hafiz Anis informed the committee that consequent to the reports appearing in the national media highlighting massive pilferage of Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) containers inside Pakistan, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the "ISAF container scandal" and issued notices to various stakeholders, including the FBR. After the preliminary hearings, the Supreme Court on September 30, 2010, directed the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) to probe into the matter and submit answers to 15 questions, specifically highlighted by the Supreme Court.

The FTO submitted its report in the apex court in January 2011 and concluded that it was impossible for an ATT container to complete a round trip from Karachi to Torkham or Chaman and back to Karachi in eight days. Based on these criteria, the FTO reported that during the period from January 1, 2007, to October 15, 2010, as many as 7,922 containers had completed the said round trip in eight or less than eight days, and the goods imported therein thus never crossed Pak-Afghan border and were instead pilfered or dropped within Pakistan. The revenue loss on these 7,922 containers was estimated at Rs 19 billion. Based on benchmark of 10 days, the number of missing containers was worked out as 15,314 and revenue loss was estimated at Rs 37 billion.

On the receipt of FTO's findings, the FBR chairman constituted an investigation committee on January 25, 2011, headed by the member taxpayers audit.

Investigation has revealed that "gate-in" event of 77,884 containers is missing in PACCS and "cross-border" event of 95,374 containers is missing. It is improbable that such a huge number of containers may have gone missing, but failure on the part of relevant customs field formations to ensure proper monitoring and reconciliation through system is glaring.
Posted by:Steve White

#2  I would have more faith moving munitions through Iran than Pakistan.
Posted by: Chunky Henbane1146   2012-01-27 05:16  

#1  Still, time to let the usual suspects know we're un-happy-happy with their crappy attitude and mendaciousness.

Past time. Use Russkie or Chinese munitions.
Posted by: Muggsy Johnson7466   2012-01-27 00:53  

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