The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) disclosed on Tuesday that the Afghan Transit Trade facility was being misused to Pakistan’s disadvantage by smugglers with the help of a leading courier company.

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue presided over by Nasreen Jalil discussed reports of confiscation of large consignments of mobile phones and other communication equipment.

A senior official of the FBR’s intelligence wing informed the committee that the confiscated consignments included over 4,000 air-conditioners and electronic goods worth Rs357 million and not mobile and telecom items as earlier reported. The committee was informed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) might file a reference against the owners of a leasing and refinancing company for eating away over Rs700 million of 1,600 ordinary depositors. He said the FBR’s intelligence wing had arrested the owner of an Afghan firm and two general managers of the courier company in Islamabad and Lahore. The matter was taken up with the company’s management which removed its chief executive officer for Pakistan.