Karachi to Kabul: Cabinet may allow transit of UNAMA office's equipment, spare parts

The federal cabinet is to allow transit of office equipment and spare parts of vehicles on the request of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from Karachi to Kabul, official sources told Business Recorder.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Islamabad has requested permission to allow transit of a 20 feet container STC containing 14 packages which among other office equipment include spare parts of its vehicles from Karachi to Kabul.
Commerce Division, in its SRO 151(1)/2004 of March 10, 2004 and 658(1)/2006 of June 22, 2006 has prohibited entry of auto parts into Pakistan for the purpose of transit to Afghanistan. The purpose of prohibiting auto parts (all sorts) into Pakistan by sea, land and air in transit to Afghanistan was to control illegal trade and smuggling.
The sources said, Ministry of Commerce, from time to time, has been allowing transit of vehicles with spare parts of United Nations and other attached Organisations such as UNHCR, UNAMA and WHO etc as per provision in article 15 of the Customs Act, 1969. However, after the judgment by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in civil appeals No. 1428 to 1436 of 2016, powers of the Secretaries/ Ministers to grant special permissions have been curtailed. The SC has held that where the expression" federal government" has been employed in any statutory instrument it refers to the "federal cabinet".
According to sources, due to frequent recurring of the transshipment of vehicles by UN and related international organisations in Afghanistan, Commerce Division, in its summary of September 27, 2017 requested the cabinet that in future, instead of forwarding each case to the federal cabinet, the Minister for Commerce may be authorised to approve such cases of transit consignments of international organisations to Afghanistan certifying that these consignments have no commercial value, however, the cabinet on October 3, 2017 directed Commerce Division to submit the relevant matters on case to case basis.
The sources said, Commerce Division has sought federal cabinets' approval to allow transit of 01x20 feet container STC containing 14 packages including spare parts of vehicles of UNAMA from Karachi to Kabul arrived at Karachi port under Bill of Landing 965379678.