International Customs Day was observed on January 26 across the world including Pakistan with the theme for 2013 "Innovation for Customs Progress." Pakistan Customs also celebrated the same with great zeal and fervor. To mark the day‚ Pakistan Custom arranged special ceremonies to observe the day in a befitting manner. Opening of the celebrations in the morning at Custom House Karachi was done by Chief Guest of the event member customs FBR Muhammd Riaz with the hoisting of flag and a salute was given to the flag by Customs Officers on national anthem.
Chief collector customs, collector of customs MCC Preventive and large number of customs officers were presented on the occasion. After that,
a huge quantity of Narcotics and other contraband goods including 200 kg heroin, 4850 kg charas, 132 beer canes, 451 gutka cottons and 650 liquor bottles.
The representatives of different embassies, high officials of cost guard, anti narcotic force and large number of customs officers and media persons witnessed the destruction. Chief Guest gave the briefing to the media. In the evening at 6:30 pm a ceremony was held at the Auditorium of Directorate General of the Training, Old Customs house Karachi which was very well decorated for the event. Honorable Member (Customs) Mr. Muhammad Riaz graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Member (Training), FBR Ms. Yasmeen Saud, Director General Customs Valuation Mr. Amir M. Khan Marwat and Director Training & Research (Customs) Ms. Rubina Wasti were also present at the occasion. The function was attended by all the senior officers of Pakistan Customs including Collectors,
Directors, Additional/ Deputy Collectors and Assistant Collectors along with large numbers of Customs officials. Besides this, representatives from Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries Pakistan, Karachi Customs Clearing Agents Association and other private sector organization were also present.
Rubina Wasti welcomed all distinguished guest at DGTR (Customs), Karachi. In her opening speech she emphasized the importance of the day and the role of customs.
The Chief Guest Honorable Member (Customs) speaking on the occasion said that Pakistan Customs has already started projects utilizing the state of the art technologies to facilitate the trade and providing prompt services to all the stakeholders. Web Based One Customs System (WeBOC) is a prime example of using innovative steps to facilitate the clearance of goods.
Different speakers from Pakistan Customs as well as private sector delivered speeches and presentations on the theme “Innovation for Customs Progress”. Performance based awards and shields were distributed among Officers and officials of Pakistan belong to three separate categories i.e. BS-17 to 19, BS 11-16 and BS-5 to 10.
In the end a grand dinner was hosted at the roof top of DGTR (Customs), Karachi for the Chief Guest and other participants of the event.
