Drones, weapons of mass destruction: FBR notifies list of prohibited US cargo

After signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and the United States on restoration of Nato supplies to Afghanistan, the Federal Board of Revenue has issued a list of 24 prohibited/lethal items including drones, nuclear bombs, chemical and biological weapons, combat aircraft/helicopters and all types of conventional bombs/arms/ammunition.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday that the US Forces in Afghanistan cannot get these lethal items cleared from Pakistani customs department under the transit arrangement for transportation of goods through land route. The FBR has notified and dispatched the list of prohibited US cargo to relevant customs ports for not allowing clearance of specified weapons during their transit to Afghanistan.
The list has been compiled by the customs department after signing of the MoU between Pakistan and US allowing Nato convoys to travel to Afghanistan. The customs department would not allow US Forces to obtain clearance of weapons mentioned in the list. According to the FBR's list of prohibited US Cargo, different kinds of weapons are not permissible for transit to Afghanistan.
The prohibited US cargo included weapons, ammunition, military or commercial explosives, anti-tanks weapons, guided missiles, laser weapon system, tanks and armoured vehicles, all kinds of light weapons, all kinds of mines, arms/ammunition, nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devises, combat aircrafts, attack helicopters, unmanned combat aerial vehicles and drones, chemical weapons, biological weapons, depleted uranium ammunition and special nuclear material.
Following is the notified list of prohibited US cargo issued by the FBR for not allowing transit to Afghanistan:
1. Small arms and light weapons of all types and calibers.
2. Anti-Tank weapons of all types.
3. Mortars of all types.
4. Automatic grenade launchers.
5. Tanks and armoured vehicle with rigid mounted weapons.
6. Wheeled armoured vehicles with rigid mounted weapons.
7. Artillery guns of all types and calibers.
8. Missiles, rockets (guided or otherwise) and launchers of all types.
9. Mines of all types.
10. Bombs of all types.
11. All types of projectiles and artillery munitions.
12. Directed energy and kinetic energy weapons systems.
13. Laser weapon systems, including wave or pulse laser systems.
14. Combat aircraft, attack helicopters including their armament systems.
15. Unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned combat aerial vehicles and drones and their controlling, operating, launching and recovery equipment.
16. Ammunition, military and commercial explosives of all types including initiating devices.
17. Chemical weapons including precursors and munitions as defined by Pakistan Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Ordinance 2000 or agents for use in chemical warfare and their delivery means.
18. Those narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances subject to limits on transport in the UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and included at Annex A to Protocol Four of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement 2010 (APTTA).
19. Biological weapons including biological agents for use as weapons and their delivery means.
20. Dangerous goods barred for international carriage under the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by roads and its Annexes as most recently amended in January 2011 excluding oil and petroleum products.
21. Hazardous waste material, including depleted uranium ammunition as defined and classified in the Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their disposal unless transported in environmentally sound containers in accordance with Pakistan and international standard.
22. Nuclear weapons or nuclear explosives devices including components, sub-components, delivery systems and training models for such weapons or devices.
23. Source material (or uranium containing the mixture of isotopes occurring in nature; uranium depleted in the isotope 235; thorium; and of the foregoing in the form of metal, alloy, chemical compound or concentrate; another substance containing one or more of the forging in such concentration as may mutually determined between the participants and such other substances as may be mutually determined between the participants; by-product material (or any radioactive material except special nuclear material) yielded in or made radioactive by exposure to the radiation incident to the process of producing or utilising special nuclear material or special nuclear material (or plutonium, uranium 233, uranium enriched in the isotope 233 or 235; any substance containing one or more of the foregoing and such other substances as may be mutually determined between the participants or without the appropriate license or authorisation items restricted under the Pakistan Nuclear Authority Ordinance 2001 and Export Control Act on Goods Technologies materials related to Nuclear and Biological Weapons and Related Delivery System Act 2004.
24. Any other type of weapon, ammunition, military or commercial explosives not listed above.
25. The small arms, ammunition, individual solider kit and Night Vision Devices will not be permitted for transit under this customs order from Torkham and Chaman, the FBR list added.