Pakistan remains a key supply route for NATO trucks bringing supplies to war-hit Afghanistan. File photo

ISLAMABAD - The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday asked the government to collect revenue from NATO containers supplying oil to Afghanistan by taxing them.The PAC met with Yasmeen Rehman in the chair in the absence of committee chairman Nisar Ali Khan.
The committee members showed annoyance over the return and sale of goods booked for NATO and under the Afghan Trade Transit Agreement (ATTA) in Peshawar, saying it was causing serious loss to local industry. Noor Alam Khan told the committee that 256 containers of NATO used to go to Afghanistan through Torkham every day without paying a single penny as tax and they were damaging the road infrastructure of the country.
The FATA secretary said talks were underway with the USAID authorities in connection with damage caused to Pakistani highways due to movement of these containers. Committee members said it should be ensured that the containers which come to Pakistan should cross the borders. It is observed that some containers do not cross the border and are unloaded in Hayatabad due to which the goods were smuggled, causing heavy loss to the national economy.
The auditor general for Pakistan said the matter pertaining to NATO containers was pending in the Supreme Court and was also being watched by the FBI. Hamid Yar Hiraj alleged that the Interior Ministry was involved in grey market business in the IT field as well as illegal telephone exchange business, as 5.5 billion minutes illegal telephone calls were made annually.
The IT secretary told the committee that the people involved in running illegal telephone exchanges possessed modern technology due to which the calls could not be jammed completely.