Imtiaz Gul
Currently, over 5000 containers of the Afghan transit trade are stuck at the Karachi port on July 7, mostly because of a shortage of GPS Tracker devices that are installed on every container destined for Afghanistan. These devices are removed shortly before the entry of the trucks into Afghanistan.
Ironically, only one firm – TPL – enjoys the exclusive monopoly for the supply of trackers. It charges $50 per tracker, a roaring business if one were to multiply this amount with at least a 5000-100,000 containers that transit through Pakistan to Afghanistan every year. It is a multi-million dollar business for the company, which has miserably failed in increasing the supply, ostensibly in collusion with the customs officials.
Despite all the recent pressure from Islamabad, the company released only 4100 devices between June 15 and July 7. This supply had peaked to 300 in the third week of June but the numbers dipped again to 100 in the first six days of July. This also means only about 100 transit trade containers are being cleared daily by the customs.
TPL officials keep telling higher authorities and the traders that trackers are short because trucks installed with the don’t return from Afghanistan.
The reality on the contrary is that trackers are removed before the containers enter Afghanistan.
This invariably points to an unholy nexus between the customs, intelligence the TPL and the company that provides designated trucks for the transit cargo.
Why should Afghan transit traders pay for the slow clearance processes including scanning at the Port, and the reported shortage of trackers?
Who will take on this unholy nexus that is damaging Pakistan’s economic interests and hurting its perception, particularly among Afghans?
