Where we work · Islamabad
We are not in Islamabad or Rawalpindi. Here is what that actually means for your shipment.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 14 September 2026
Shafiq Traders has no office in Islamabad or Rawalpindi. The capital and its twin city have their own customs collectorate and their own inland dry port for containers, and a great deal of what reaches Islamabad — more than in a textile city like Faisalabad — moves by air through the cargo complex at Islamabad International Airport rather than by sea container. We are not licensed at the regional collectorate, its dry port, or that airport. What we clear is Karachi Port, Port Qasim and Karachi airport, and our own office at the Lahore dry port. For a shipment bound for Islamabad or Rawalpindi, that means one more road leg than a locally licensed agent would need: air freight lands at Karachi instead of Islamabad and is trucked up, and sea freight clears at Karachi or Lahore and moves the rest of the way by road. If landing and clearing right at Islamabad airport is what matters most to you, that is not us. If you can be flexible about where it clears, we can take it from either end and get it the rest of the way.
A market that moves by air more than by container
Islamabad and Rawalpindi have their own customs collectorate and their own inland dry port, and a share of what the capital brings in — equipment, parts, consumer goods, documents and samples — comes in through the cargo complex at Islamabad International Airport rather than as a sea container moved upcountry.
That changes the shape of the job compared with a textile city. There is less bulk cargo needing a bonded move from a seaport, and more air freight where the question is simply which airport it lands at and who clears it there.
Where a shipment for Islamabad or Rawalpindi can clear
| Station | Covers | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| The regional customs collectorate and inland dry port | Islamabad Capital Territory, Rawalpindi and neighbouring districts | The local station for the region's own container and cargo business. We are not licensed here. |
| Islamabad International Airport, cargo complex | Air freight landing directly in the capital | Where air cargo for Islamabad usually lands. We are not licensed here either. |
| Karachi Port, Port Qasim or Karachi airport | Where this firm's head office sits | Where we clear a sea or air shipment if it is routed through Karachi instead. |
| Lahore Dry Port, Mughalpura | Where this firm's original office sits, since 1987 | Where we clear a container filed upcountry, closer to Islamabad than Karachi is. |
How we would actually clear a shipment for the capital
One more road leg than a locally licensed agent needs — the honest trade-off.
Routed through Karachi, not Islamabad
Air freight is booked to land at Karachi airport instead of Islamabad; sea freight already lands at Karachi Port or Port Qasim.
Cleared at Karachi, or moved to Lahore under bond
A container can clear at the seaport directly, or move upcountry to our Lahore office with the duty still unpaid, under Section 121 of the Customs Act, 1969.
The Goods Declaration
Filed on the Pakistan Single Window at whichever station the shipment reached, assessed, and examined if the system selects it.
Duty and release
We settle what is payable and the station's own charges, then release the shipment to move on.
The road leg to Islamabad or Rawalpindi
Transport onward is arranged through a carrier from Karachi or Lahore. We do not own the trucks.
Companies we have cleared for
Businesses based well outside Karachi and Lahore sit alongside the rest of the register, cleared through one of our own stations the same as any other file.
Comfort Knitwears · H. Sheikh Noor-ud-Din & Sons · Z-KAP (Zulfiqar Knitting & Processing Mills)
A shipment cleared right at Islamabad airport or the regional dry port will usually reach you faster than one we route through Karachi or Lahore and then truck up. We are not going to pretend that road leg isn't there. What we can do is the other side of that trade-off: a firm that has cleared cargo since 1987, at both ends of the route your shipment already has to travel through, for whoever decides the extra leg is worth it.
Questions
What Islamabad and Rawalpindi importers ask us
Contact
Tell us what is coming.
Give us the product, the port and roughly when the vessel is due, and we will tell you what the clearance involves and what it will cost.