KARACHI: It seems that just a little whisper in the ears of Mr.Abdul Rasheed Shaikh, the Chief Collector Appraisement South, Karachi is sufficient enough for a so called disciplinary action against the assessment staff. Any unrelated and irrelevant person can say anything to the Chief Collector against any assessment official and the Chief Collector will penalize him either by transfer or placing him duty-off or issue explanation memo, without any proof, investigation or verification of the complaint.
Mr. Hamood Ur Rehman, Principal Appraiser (R&D-East) is the latest victim of the infamous ‘trade facilitation’ strategy of Mr. Abdul Rasheed Shaikh.
Mr. Shaikh is penalizing and victimizing every official/officer of the under him, who is detecting fiscal frauds or revenue evasion, because as per Mr. Shaikh’s view, these detections are against trade facilitation agenda being pursued by the him.
In the instant case, Mr. Hamood Ur Rehman as PA (R&D-East) detected huge revenue evasion by M/s First Way Link Traders on the import of tyres. A contravention was prepared and Adjudicating Authority had imposed fines and penalty. The amount of duty, tax and penalty was recovered accordingly. The importer had deposited a pay order of RS6.5 million as security. After recovery was made, an unidentified and unauthorized person approached R&D Section and demanded return of the said payorder. Since the instrument could only be returned to the owner of the payorder/ importer or his authorized agent, the said person was refused and asked to provider authorization from the importer or actual importer should approach R&D Section for release of his said pay order of Rs.6.5 million. Instead of pursuing law full procedure, the said person approached the chief collector and complained falsely that Mr. Hamood Ur Rehman PA(R&D) is demanding bribe for return of the pay order.
The Chief Collector without any investigation or verification, ordered to place Mr. Hamood-ur-Rehman on duty-off status (the officer is not authorized to conduct official work-a very humiliating and awkward position). Later on, the said importer appeared before Mr. Ashhad Jawwad, Collector MCC Appraisement-East, Karachi and stated that nobody asked for the bribe.
In the past too, Mr. Abdul Rasheed Shaikh had penalized several officers for detecting evasion and fiscal frauds, instead of rewarding them.
PA Shafiullah and PO Malak Hashim were transferred after they detected loss to exchequer to the tune of hundreds of millions rupees by M/s BBJ Pipes. Similarly, officers taking action against the criminal doings of M/s EMovers were also victimized.
It was known that he had created an environment of fear wherein officers and officials are scared to do their job as per legal charter prescribed by the Customs Act, 1969. An officer, who preferred not to disclosed his identity, said Mr. Shaikh had literally hijacked Appraisement South Region and is even blackmailing and pressurizing the Collectors.
Senior officers opined that Mr. Abdul Rasheed Shaikh was known to be an honest officer of Customs Service, but his present policies are proving otherwise. It seems Mr. Shaikh has someone as his frontman who looks after his ‘business’ while the chief collector is inflicting loss on exchequer in the name of so called “trade facilitation”.