ISLAMABAD – The Ministries of Defence and Commerce, on Thursday, refused to take responsibility for NATO and ISAF transit facility, saying that they were mere signatories to the agreement.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce met under the chairmanship of Khurram Dastagir Khan and decided to call the Minister of Defence to clarify the issue in the next meeting. The meeting was called to probe legal arrangements governing NATO and ISAF transit facility to Afghanistan. Officials of the ministries of Defence and Commerce, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and National Logistic Cell (NLC) briefed the committee.
Representatives of NLC stated that 87 percent of the shipment of NATO and ISAF, using Pakistani soil to Afghanistan, was without any legal agreement as NLC was dealing with only 13 percent of the containers. The committee was informed that, under the facility, 7,000 to 8,000 containers were going to Afghanistan monthly. It was also stated that containers were declared sensitive and were neither regulated nor scrutinised.
The Additional Secretary of Defence stated that transit facility was provided under UN resolution and Ministries of Defence of Pakistan and UK signed an MOU to permit ISAF for the transit facility in June 2002. He clarified that US was not a signatory to the MOU. Representatives of Defence and Commerce ministries refused to take responsibility for the facility, saying that they were only signatories and were not involved in the facility’s finalisation.
Chairman Khurram Dastagir said that government’s continuation of the facility, on a MoU, for the past last nine years was alarming. The committee decided to call Minister for Defence Ahmed Mukhtar and FBR chairman to brief the committee in the next meeting.
