KARACHI: The turns of events suggest contrary to the claims of M/s AMI Pakistan Pvt Ltd that their import manager named Noman Abdul Rauf mis-declared the port of loading and manipulated the documents for his own benefit and without the approval of company’s directors.
Noman Abdul Rauf is in Customs custody as part of the investigations underway whereas the company allegedly in connivance with importers and clearing agents issued switch Bills of Lading and got cleared different goods by mis-declaring the vital information with regard to the shipper’s name, port of loading, country of origin to claim inadmissible FTA benefit and clearing banned products.
At first MCC Appraisement West detected the scam. The investigations into the scam were conducted by a team formed by Collector Dr. Uwais Agha Jawwad and after rigorous effort the team Deputy Collector Ghulam Nabi Kamboh and Appraising Officers Shahid Ibrahim Dasti, Irshad Ahmed, Zulfiqar Zaman and Javed Khalid, unfolded various aspects of the case.
MCC Appraisement West and MCC Appraisement East lodged dozens of FIRs nominating M/s AMI Pakistan Pvt Ltd, various importers and clearing agents.
During the course, Customs authorities arrested Noman Abdul Rauf. Meanwhile, M/s AMI Pakistan disowned the conduct of their import manager Noman as well as served him a show cause notice to explain scores of such cases where Noman used company’s user ID and password to electronically upload false information in the IGM. M/s AMI Pakistan advised Noman to furnish reply within a week.
But, the interesting thing is that the company’s notice was delivered to Noman’s residence despite the fact Noman was in Customs custody and was being duly represented by M/s AMI Pakistan’s appointed lawyer and resources. More interestingly, M/s AMI Pakistan served Noman on March 02, 2016 and M/s AMI Pakistan appointed lawyer is still representing Noman.
It is also surprising that the practice was going on for a long time and company’s user ID was being mis-used, but none of the company’s directors and management took note of the situation and fixed responsibility until Customs detected the scam.
Noman Abdul Rauf in the reply to show cause notice served by his employers M/s AMI Pakistan denied all allegations and noted that he always followed company’s policy and never exceeded his jurisdiction.
In a court hearing MCC Appraisement West admitted before the court that directors of the company were not involved in the scam, to which court restrained authorities from any coercive action against the company directors.
M/s AMI Pakistan has four directors including Saba Haleem Siddiqui, Asim Siddiqui, Danish Siddiqui and Shariq Siddiqui. Saba Haleem Siddiqui is the wife of Haleem Siddiqui and is a sleeping partner. Danish Siddiqui is abroad for over a decade while Shariq is also a sleeping partner. An official said unless Asim Siddiqui was involved in the investigations, the case could not progress in a just manner.
Meanwhile, Collector Appraisement East Majid Yousafani has advised the R&D staff to broaden the ambit of investigations and ensure that justice is served and the actual culprits are taken to the task.
Sources said R&D East has initiated scrutinize the banking transactions of the company to get to the true picture. Customs is making efforts to bring Arif Humayun former CEO of the company into the investigations as he was the signing authority in case of all transactions.
An official said that Customs some time back had lodged an FIR where a crime was committed in a very organized manner and a container was removed from the M/s Pakistan International container Terminal (PICT) yard and PICT staff was found to be involved in the crime. Asim Siddiqui is also a director of M/s PICT.
An official said Chairman FBR, Member Customs and Chief Collector South are taking personal interest in this high-profile case. So far 28 FIRs have been lodged against M/s AMI Pakistan and more FIRs are expected soon.