Pakistan Customs has established a new Customs Laboratory at Azakhel Dry port for facilitating trade. The laboratory is equipped with basic instruments sufficient to conduct testing of fabrics, plastic, plastic related products, and edibles and dyes.
Earlier, samples were referred for testing to laboratories at Karachi, Lahore, and Faisalabad which took several days and increased costs. Now around 80 % of the samples would be tested at the local laboratory. By establishing a customs laboratory at Azakhel, a long-standing demand of the importers has been met and they expressed their satisfaction over operationalization of the laboratory welcoming the initiative as it would reduce delays in clearance and decrease cost leading to decrease in dwell time.
President Sarhad Chamber of Commerce Mr. Junaid Altaf also appreciated the establishment of lab. The Customs controls shall also improve by ensuring integrity of the samples.
Another state of the art laboratory shall soon become operational at Torkham Border station under the ITTMS Project.
