KARACHI: All transfers and postings in Customs through Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) are being done on the recommendations of Chief Collector Appraisement South Abdul Rasheed Sheikh.
Sheikh is said to have all the authority on the affairs of Customs and these authorities are reportedly given to him on the instructions of Haroon Akhtar, Advisor to Prime Minister.
Earlier, Collector Shahnaz Maqbool was transferred as she made a case pertaining to fraudulent import of mobile phones and now Deputy Collector Imran Rasool has been transferred.
Sources said detecting officers are being transferred from Appraisement South. An official said a large consignment of acetic anhydride had been seized recently, and it was likely that the officers detecting the import of acetic anhydride would also be transferred.
Abdul Rasheed Sheikh was earlier known as an honest and competent officer. However, in the last three years, he was given unlimited powers by Advisor Haroon Akhtar. Chief Collector Abdul Rasheed Sheikh is allegedly tasked to patronize major crimes including mis-declaration.
Earlier, there was a practice at Customs that all the officers and officials were onboard in the collection and distribution of the ‘speed money’. But, this time no officer/official is involved in this alleged larger game and the decision making authority of these officers is being eliminated, which has resulted in such a hue and cry.
An official said state of affairs at Customs Appraisement South were quite fishy as officers and officials who are detecting cases are being victimized and moved to bad postings. Recently, customs appraisement officers association held a strike against the verbal instructions of Chief Collector that examination should not be conducted and documents should not be called for clearance of imported consignments. Subsequently, Javed Khalid moved to Quetta, Raja Waseem moved to Gilgit Baltistan, Qasim Shaikh, Zahid Aziz and many others were also transferred.
Assessment officers said that these verbal orders had again been issued. The consignments clearing through green channel are a safe bet as there is no examination, and now consignments going through yellow channel are also being secured so that no mis-declaration could be detected. This entire game is allegedly being played under the patronage of a federal advisor.
On the other hand, Director General Customs Intelligence Shaukat Ali is weakening the intelligence side of the customs so that smuggling could go undetected and unchecked.
Sources said if the affairs of green channel were investigated, cases worth billions of rupees could be detected.