KARACHI: Chief Collector Appraisement South, Nasir Masroor has mandated MCC Appraisement East, MCC Appraisement West and MCC Port Qasim to conduct joint investigations into the import and clearance of banned pharmaceutical chemical and find concrete evidences, so that the culprits could be taken to the task.
Nasir Masroor conducted a meeting in Karachi to deliberate on this high profile case in which several rules, regulations and laws were violated while economy was inflicted a huge loss. The meeting was attended by Collector Appraisement West Mohammad Saleem, Collector Appraisement East Manzoor Memon and Collector Port Qasim Surayya Butt and additional collectors.
Mohammad Saleem informed the meeting that the suppliers of the subject chemical in India and China were being contacted to obtain details regarding importers and the source of payment for these imports. These details are being acquired to facilitate prosecution.
It is worth to note that as many as nine consignments of the said chemical i.e. Paracetamol/aspirin are lying unclaimed at MCC Appraisement East and one is lying unclaimed at MCC Appraisement West. It is known that 83 consignments of similar goods have already been cleared from MCC Appraisement East and nine were cleared from MCC Appraisement West. These consignments were shipped by the suppliers in India and China who have shipped the abovementioned unclaimed consignments.
This exercise is being undertaken to establish and confirm that these unclaimed consignments were also imported by the importers who already have cleared 92 consignments; 83 from Appraisement East and 09 from MCC Appraisement West. These consignments were cleared in the name of different companies, but the prime suspect was only Mohammad Ali Chandna, who is already in Customs custody on a remand till March 16, 2015.
As soon as the details are received from the suppliers about the parties making import orders and making payments, the picture would be crystal clear about these unclaimed consignments and the accused would not be able to escape the justice through manipulation of provisions of law.
Mohammad Saleem had earlier advised Additional Collector Nayyar Shafique to investigate the details pertaining to first 10 Goods Declarations, which were cleared. This exercise was undertaken to identify the persons who created the data on the basis of which subsequent consignments were cleared. These details were sent to Chairman and FBR and it is likely that the appraising officers processing the initial consignments would be included in the investigation.
Intelligence sources informed Customnews.pk that Mohammad Ali Chandna owner of M/s Pure Enterprises was also operating a company in Dubai while M/s Cemizone is his subsidiary company. Customs has already lodged FIRs against M/s Pure Enterprises and M/s Cemizone for importing and clearing banned pharmaceutical chemical through mis-declaration and vague description such as SDO.
Sources said that accused Mohammad Ali Chandna was confident that no action would be taken against him as he had developed connections with appraising staff of MCC Appraisement West as well as with the senior most officer of Appraisement East.
Intelligence sources said that Chandna even after the lodging of FIRs against him did not attempted to hide, escape or even change his daily schedule, which proves that he had assurances from his ‘well-wishers’ that no action would be taken against him. Intelligence sources said that the raid on his home to arrest Chandna was conducted without the knowledge of Collector Appraisement East Manzoor Memon.
It was known that Manzoor Memon was attending the Mandatory Capacity Building Program at Directorate General of Training & Research, and when he got the information regarding the arrest of Chandna, he immediately left the session. Sources said that when the DG Training Ghulam Mohammad inquired about his leaving in the middle of session, Manzoor Memon misbehaved with the DG Training & Research in the presence of a number of Collectors. However, the incident could not be confirmed from Ghulam Mohammad.