The federal cabinet, which is set to meet on Wednesday (today) with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the chair, will allow transit of Toyota spare parts to Afghanistan to be used by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
The UNAMA Islamabad has requested for permission to allow 01x40 feet container STC containing 51 packages of spare parts of Toyota vehicles for its Mission in Afghanistan from Karachi to Kabul via Torkham that has arrived at Karachi Port under Bill of Lading 39601097. The demurrage charges are accumulating with the each passing day.
The sources said under Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) 2010, there is no provision of allowing transit of consignments consisting of non-commercial automobiles and spare parts via Pakistan to Afghanistan of which the consignee is an international organization.
"Although there is no negative/ prohibited list of arms under the agreement, yet the Commerce Ministry in 2004 had prohibited entry of auto parts into Pakistan for the purpose of transit to Afghanistan," the sources continued. The Commerce Ministry, sources said, is of the view that the purpose of prohibiting auto parts (all sorts) into Pakistan by sea, land and air in transit to Afghanistan was to control widespread illegal trade and smuggling.
The Ministry of Commerce and Textile (Commerce Division) from time to time, has been allowing transit of vehicles with spare parts of United Nations and other attached organizations such as UNHCR, UNAMA and WHO etc, however, after the judgement by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in civil appeals No 1428 to 1436 of 2016, powers of the secretary/ ministers to grant special permissions, have been curtailed. The SC has held where the expression "federal government" has been employed in any statutory instrument it refers to the federal cabinet. The Commerce Ministry in its summary to the federal cabinet has stated that due to frequent recurring of the transshipment of vehicles by UN and related international organizations in Afghanistan, the ministry on September 27,2017 requested the cabinet that in future, instead of forwarding each case to the federal cabinet, the federal minister for commerce may be authorized to approve such cases of transit consignments of international organizations to Afghanistan certifying that these consignments have no commercial value, however, the cabinet on October 3, 2017 directed the Commerce Ministry to submit relevant matters on case to case basis .
Besides, current situation arose after 'dangerous' tweet from US President Donald Trump, the cabinet will discuss the following issues in the meeting : (i) publication of block level provisional results; (ii) establishment of permanent secretariat of the CCI; (iii) approval of maximum retail prices of additional pack sizes of already registered drugs; (iv) approval of increase in maximum retail prices of drugs under para 8 of the Drug Pricing Policy -2015 and threshold limits of lower priced drugs under para 11 of the Drug Pricing Policy 2015; (v) extension in contract appointment of Agha Jan Akhtar as Chairman Port Qasim Authority; (vi) approval of the cabinet for placement of "Institute of Arts and Culture Bill, 2017" before the Parliament; (vii) appointment of Board of Directors - Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC) and; (viii) Board of Directors- Pakistan Gems and jewellery Development Company (PGJDC), etc.
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