Where we work · Lahore
The original office, outside Mughalpura dry port since 1987.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
Shafiq Traders' first office was in Lahore, and it is still there: Room No. 2, 1st Floor, Sarmad Building, outside the Mughalpura dry port. Rao Muhammad Iqbal Khan and Rao Javaid Iqbal Khan opened it in 1987, the year they took Licence No. 22/87 — five years before the Karachi office existed. From Mughalpura this office clears goods moved upcountry from Karachi Port and Port Qasim under bond, and files at Prem Nagar and the container freight station at Thokar Niaz Baig as well.
The office that came first
Karachi has the larger volume today, but Lahore is where the firm started. Rao Muhammad Iqbal Khan and Rao Javaid Iqbal Khan opened this office outside the Mughalpura dry port in 1987, the same year they took Licence No. 22/87 — the twenty-second clearing licence issued in Pakistan that year. The Karachi office came five years later, in 1992.
A rival's website that opens with "licensed since 1988" is telling you, without meaning to, that this firm was already a year into the work.
What moving a container upcountry means
Nothing that arrives by sea lands in Lahore. It lands at Karachi Port or Port Qasim, and if the importer's business is upcountry, it can move there before the duty is paid at the seaport.
That movement is allowed under Section 121 of the Customs Act, 1969 — transportation of goods without payment of duty from one customs station to another. The container travels under bond, in the care of a carrier licensed for the purpose, and the duty stays unpaid until the goods are assessed at the station they are actually going to.
Where a Lahore consignment is cleared
| Station | Where it is | What runs through it |
|---|---|---|
| Lahore Dry Port, Mughalpura | Outside Mughalpura, Lahore — where this office sits | General import and export cargo moved upcountry from Karachi |
| Prem Nagar | Near Raiwind, District Kasur | Container traffic moved by rail from Karachi's port terminals |
| Container Freight Station, Thokar Niaz Baig | Lahore | Import and export cargo under the same collectorate |
How a container gets from the port to Mughalpura
The Goods Declaration is filed here, not at the seaport.
Declared for the inland station
The shipping line's manifest names the inland station as the cargo's destination before the vessel is even unloaded.
Moved under bond
A carrier licensed for the purpose moves the container upcountry with the duty still unpaid, under Section 121 of the Customs Act.
Arrival at Mughalpura or Prem Nagar
The container is received into the dry port's own yard, the same as any import that has just come off a vessel.
The Goods Declaration
Filed on the Pakistan Single Window from this office, assessed, and examined if the system selects it.
Duty and release
We settle what is payable and the dry port's own charges, then move the container on to you.
Companies we have cleared through Lahore
Many of the mills on this register ship through Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan rather than Karachi itself. Where the goods land does not change which office runs the file.
Comfort Knitwears · H. Sheikh Noor-ud-Din & Sons · Z-KAP (Zulfiqar Knitting & Processing Mills) · Fairdeal Textiles · Green Hill Corporation · Stitches · Warisha Industries · Aadam Textile · Al Rehman Textile Industries · Al-Hamza Textile · Luminara Textiles · Unifab Exports · Vihaana Textiles · Bilal Qayyum Embroidery · Pak Thread Collection · Textile Sage
Moving a container upcountry is not a way around Karachi's assessment. The Goods Declaration filed at Mughalpura carries the same invoice, the same value and the same classification it would have carried at the seaport, and a query raised there stops the file exactly as it would at the port. What upcountry movement buys is a clearance close to your own gate. It does not buy an easier file.
Questions
What Lahore 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.