KARACHI – Moments after curiously letting two successive red and white coloured 92 x 38 x 18 inch cargo boxes pass through the International Arrivals Terminal of Jinnah International Airport Karachi sans probe, senior customs officer, Hamid Aziz, also let a third red and white coloured 92 x 38 x 18 inch cargo box without ordering its inspection.
The decision, described by Aziz’s colleagues, as the latest curious move of the veteran customs officer’s long and illustrious career in the field, was taken during the early hours of Thursday morning, making it ‘at least the ninth suspicious looking cargo item’ that he had let go this week without inspection.
“This too shall pass,” was Aziz’s reply to the question, “why aren’t we checking this, sir?” which had clearly demanded the reason behind the move and not the direction of the move.
“It was clearly a case of ignoratio elenchi, an informal fallacy, underlining the lack of correlation between the query and the response,” noted Shahbaz Karim, Aziz’s subordinate.
Eyewitnesses confirm that Aziz’s customs team are known for their penchant for philosophy, led by Aziz, who describes himself as a ‘custom philosopher’, often leading stimulating conversations during cargo inspection.
“Hope for the best but prepare for the worst,” Aziz told Karim after being inquired about the latter’s cut in this particular order, with the self-avowed custom philosopher underlining the ephemeral nature of the hitherto arrangement.
