KARACHI: As the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has made it mandatory that prior to transfers and postings of FBR officers of Grade-18 and above, a sort of conduct clearance of the officers by Intelligence Bureau (IB) will be needed; a grand-scale reshuffling in the FBR are awaiting the said clearance report.
An official said, IB is not evaluating the officers for transfers nor they had any say in this decision; the intelligence agency would only suggest whether the officers were directly or indirectly involved in any terrorist, criminal or anti-social activity.
Last year, it was for the first time that such a report was sought from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), transfers and postings were then made keeping the agency’s input in view. This experiment proved to be a success, which is evident from the performance of field formations.
Quite contrary to the history, IB is for the first time being utilized at its professional potential instead of using the agency for political interests.
It was learnt that the team deployed in Sindh circle comprises of highly professional and reputed officers/officials, which even include holders of civil and military medals.
An official said that assistance of Intelligence Bureau was needed as the FBR’s own intelligence wings of Inland Revenue and Customs did not performed this due function. It may be mentioned here that Charter of Functions provides that FBR’s Intelligence & Investigation would look into and investigate cases of corruption and mal-practices of the revenue collecting agencies working under the FBR received by the Directorate General through public, press or any other source and to propose appropriate corrective or punitive action.
However, the I&I of FBR has never furnished any such investigative report against the FBR officers.
IB has strengthened its network in the entire province and is keeping strict vigilance over any anti-social and anti-Pakistan activity.
Sources said that the agency has started analyzing high-profile corruption cases, against senior officers of FBR, which were settled in past.
Moreover, the agency is also looking deeply into the money-laundering cases to identify any involvement or patronage by officers.