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In an aggressive diplomatic move coming at the heels of US expelling 35 Russian diplomats over the cyber attacks issue, the US government has announced sanctions against seven Pakistani companies over alleged association with the country’s missile program.

The companies have been identified, Dawn reports, as such:

1. Ahad International, Suite 5-6, 2nd Floor, Empress Tower, Empress Road, Lahore, and 2nd Floor, Nomro Centre, Badami Bagh, Lahore;
2. Air Weapons Complex (AWC), AWC: E-5, Officers Colony, Wah Cantonment;
3. Engineering Solutions Pvt. Ltd., 726, G-11/2, Ibne-Sina Road, Islamabad;
4. Maritime Technology Complex (MTC), Plot 94, Karachi, and MTC System Division, PN Dockyard, Karachi;
5. National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM), NESCOM Headquarter, Plot 94, Sector H-11/4, Islamabad;
6. New Auto Engineering (NAE), NAE: 72, Industrial Area, Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi; and
7. Universal Tooling Services, a.k.a., the following three aliases: —Forward Design and Manufacturing; —MSM Enterprises; and —Technopak Engineering, Deen Plaza, 68/62, Adamjee Road, Saddar P.O. Box 1640, GPO Rawalpindi; G-7, Nimra Centre 7, Badami Bagh, Lahore; 31/B Faisal Town, Lahore, Punjab; and Model Town, HMC Road, Taxila.

The official notification of sanctions issued by the US Department of Commerce, as per the media reports, has added the companies to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) on the charge of “have been determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”. 

The notification further went on to explain that the US government determined that there was reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable facts, that these “government, parastatal, and private entities in Pakistan are determined to be involved in activities that are contrary to the national security and/or foreign policy of the United States”.

Without giving any insight into the specification of the violations these entities are supposed to have committed, nor giving details of the items they have exported, imported or re-exported; the notification alleged that the conduct of these seven entities “raises sufficient concern that prior review of exports, re-exports or transfers (in-country) of items subject to the EAR involving these persons, and the possible imposition of license conditions or license denials on shipments to the persons, will enhance (the department’s) ability to prevent violations of the EAR”.

All the seven entities have been nestled under the destination Pakistan.

What Does Placement Under EAR Imply?

1. The placement on the EAR list imposes a license requirement for all items subject to the EAR, and a license review policy of presumption of denial.
2. The license requirements apply to any transaction in which items are to be exported, re-exported, or transferred (in-country) to any of the entities or in which such entities act as purchaser, intermediate consignee, ultimate consignee, or end-user.
3. In addition, no license exceptions are available for exports, re-exports, or transfers (in-country) to the persons being added to the entity list in this rule.
4. The restrictions will also apply to acronym used by these entities to help exporters, re-exporters and transferors.

image: Flickr / mbell1975