Ashrafuddin Pirzada
TORKHAM: A top-ranking Pakistan Customs official on Monday said in the limited resources and ground hurdles, they have made record seizures of different contraband items, including currency and gold in Torkham in the past year.
Additional collector customs Peshawar Syed Muhammad Zakir told Fata Voice News Agency that they have reshaped their strategies and search methodologies to detect the smuggling of banned items in vehicles and passengers’ luggage. He said Pakistan customs in the last year made 126.6 million rupees in seizures at the Torkham border crossing.
The official said during the year 2022-23 the customs enforcement department in Torkham foiled 50 currency cases worth 61 million rupees, gold of Rs5.2 million and 36 other cases of different contraband including tyres, cigarettes, Non-custom paid vehicles and mobile cell phones worth 60 million rupees.
Zakir said in one year that they seized 126.6 million rupees in items in the shape of currency, gold, and other contraband at the Torkham border crossing. He said they had also seized 379.141 million rupees of gold and other contraband at Bacha Khan Airport in the past few months.
The customs official said they have also seized different non-custom paid things in Nowshera, Mardan, and Abbotabad, worth 2121.74 million rupees in 2022-23.
He urged to provide them with modern high technology detecting equipment and facilities for custom staff at Torkham to further duty improvement so that they could perform their duties wholeheartedly.
Regarding the construction of the Integrated Transit Trade Management System(ITTMS) being placed at the Torkham terminal, the customs official said that construction work Torkham terminal was in the final phase. He said the completion time was given in December 2023, but due to various reasons, it seems the construction work could go beyond the time given. He said the construction authorities must expedite the construction work on the Torkham border as early completion would resolve many issues, and it could help enhance trade with Afghanistan and increase revenue for Pakistan.
Sayed Muhammad Zakir said that due to the lack of proper facilities for staff and passengers, they face a number of challenges while performing duty at the Torkham border.
He said that until and unless the road has not been widened at the Afghan side of the border, trade with Afghanistan and central Asian countries could not flourish.
To a question, he said in flag meeting authorisation have time and again requested the Afghan government to widen the road on either side of Afghanistan’s Torkham to resolve the slow traffic flow on both sides of the border.
Regarding the hard and fast conditions for passengers’ movement via the Torkham border Sayed Muhammad Zakir said every passenger should be given an Easement Rights(ER) so that the people living on both sides of the border who have blood relationships, collective businesses and share common culture could freely move across the border.
The official said 50 per cent of Afghan patients who used to visit Pakistan for medical treatment suffered from hard conditions placed on the Torkham border. He said despite that the border should be monitored well we were working to bring an easement for traders, transporters and passengers at the Torkham border
