What do you need from me to get started?

The commercial invoice, the packing list and the bill of lading. Send them as soon as your supplier issues them rather than waiting for the vessel. If the goods need an approval from another department, tell us early, because that usually takes longer than the clearance itself.

Who deals with the duty and the taxes?

We do. We work out what is payable, prepare the challans and put the payment through, and the receipts come back with the file. You are not standing at a bank counter or dealing with the department.

Which ports and stations do you work at?

Karachi Port and Port Qasim, air cargo at Karachi airport, and the dry port at Mughalpura in Lahore. The Karachi office handles the seaports and the airport, and it is where most of our filing is done.

Can you get my container out faster than somebody else?

On the parts that are ours, yes: the declaration going in early and clean, a query answered the day it is raised, and somebody at the terminal for the examination. On the parts that belong to the system, no agent controls that, and be careful of one who says he does.

What happens if customs raises a query?

The clearance stops until it is answered, so we answer it the same day wherever we can. Most queries are about the classification, the declared value, or a document that does not agree with the others. Getting the file right before it goes in is what keeps them rare.

What does a clearing agent charge?

It depends on the consignment: how many containers, what the goods are, and how much of the work is ours. Some accounts run on commission and some on a fixed amount per file. Send us the product, the port and the container count and we will tell you.

Do you handle exports as well?

Yes. Export declarations, the documentation behind them and the port work are handled from the same office.

Services · Import

Import clearance, from the bill of lading to your gate.

Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026

We file the Goods Declaration, work through the assessment and the examination, pay the duty and taxes, clear the port and terminal charges, and send the container on to your address. What we need from you is the invoice, the packing list and the bill of lading. The earlier those reach us, the more of the work is finished before the vessel berths.

Before the vessel arrives

Most of the work that decides how quickly a container moves happens before it is anywhere near Pakistan. We read the invoice and the packing list, settle the HS classification and the value, and tell you early if something in the description is going to be argued about.

We take the delivery order from the shipping line and get the file ready so the declaration goes in as soon as the manifest is filed. A consignment whose paperwork arrives the day the vessel berths starts several days behind one whose paperwork arrived a fortnight earlier.

What the file needs

The standing set for a commercial sea import. Regulated goods carry more. Requirements are set by Pakistan Customs and the regulators concerned, and are published on the FBR and Pakistan Single Window sites. Checked September 2026.
Document	What it is	Who issues it
Commercial invoice	The value, the terms of sale and the description of the goods	Your supplier
Packing list	What is in each carton or pallet, with weights and marks	Your supplier
Bill of lading or airway bill	Title to the cargo and proof it shipped	The shipping line or the airline
Letter of credit or contract	The terms the payment was made on	Your bank
Sales tax registration and NTN	Your registration with the revenue authority	Held on your trader profile
Regulatory approvals	Clearance from whichever department controls the item	The regulator concerned

What happens to your consignment

Most of our clients send the documents over and hear from us again when the truck is at their gate. This is what happens in between.

Documents and the delivery order

We go through the invoice, packing list and bill of lading, and take the delivery order from the shipping line.

Classification and valuation

We settle the HS heading and the value the goods will be assessed on, and raise anything that looks likely to be questioned.

Filing the Goods Declaration

The declaration goes in on the Pakistan Single Window, with the supporting documents attached to it.

Assessment and examination

Customs routes the consignment down the green, yellow or red channel. If it is examined, we are at the terminal for it.

Duty and taxes

We work out what is payable, prepare the challans and put the payment through. Receipts come back with the file.

Release and delivery

We settle the port and terminal charges, take the container out through the gate and send it on to your address.

The three channels

The assessment and examination channels used by Pakistan Customs. Which channel a consignment takes is decided by the system on a risk basis. Checked September 2026.
Channel	What it means	What we do
Green	Released without a documentary check or a physical examination	Take the release and move straight to the port charges and delivery
Yellow	The declaration and the documents behind it are assessed, and any query comes back electronically	Answer the query in the system the same day it is raised
Red	The consignment is scanned, or opened and physically examined	Somebody from this office is at the terminal when it is opened

What faceless assessment changed

Since December 2024 the assessment of import declarations filed at Karachi has not been done by an officer at your terminal. It goes to a Central Appraising Unit, and the officer who assesses it never deals with the agent directly. Scanners are going in at the major terminals as well, so a consignment that once had to be opened may now be looked at without being touched.

It has changed what an agent is worth. Knowing somebody at a collectorate counts for less than it used to. What counts is the declaration itself: a classification that holds, a value that is supported, and documents that agree with one another, because that file is now the whole of your case.

It also means a query arrives as a message rather than a conversation, and sits there until it is answered. Watching for them is most of the job.

No agent can put your consignment down the green channel. That is the system's decision, taken on risk, and anybody who tells you he can arrange it is selling you something. What an agent can do is file it so there is nothing in it worth querying, answer the moment a query is raised, and be standing at the terminal on the day it is examined. That is where the days are actually won or lost.

When a query comes back

A query stops the clock, and it does not start again until somebody answers it. That is the most common reason a container sits longer than it should.

Queries are watched here, not waited on. If an appraiser wants a catalogue page, a mill certificate or an explanation of why a value is what it is, we would rather send it the same afternoon than let it run into the weekend and into demurrage.