KARACHI: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has served call-up notices on 40 officials of Pakistan Customs for hearing being conducted in respect of transshipment (TP) cargo replacement during transit to destination.
The notices to Customs officials of dry port Peshawar and others come as a surprise as the accountability bureau has not touched the actual persons of interest in this scam, which include senior officers and a former chairman Federal Board of Revenue.
NAB Peshawar is investigating the in-famous transshipment cargo (TP) replacement scam wherein thousands of imported containers were pilfered during transit to dry ports. High value and high tariff goods were replaced by low value and low tariff goods causing huge revenue loss to the national exchequer.
Moreover, tons of contrabands also found their way into the country as certain unscrupulous elements and Customs officers/officials had collided in this dirty business.
Then Director General Intelligence Lutfullah virk in February 2015 forwarded a report to Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Tariq Bajwa in which Virk highlighted massive revenue leakage pertaining to transshipment cargo from Karachi to up country dry ports.
Lutfullah Virk forwarded his report to Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa in 2015 and Tariq Bajwa accordingly marked the report to then Member Customs Nisar Mohammad Khan for inquiry. However, the case was not pursued.
Lutfullah virk then again forwarded the report to Chairman with a reminder and it was marked to Nisar Mohammad Khan but no action was taken. Even after Nisar Mohammad Khan became Chairman FBR, he did not initiate any action to recover government’s legitimate revenue or any action was taken against the culprits involved in this multi-billion rupees scam.
The 40 officials including examining officers and inspectors and others are of the view that it was not fair to investigate and interrogate those officials who were only following orders. NAB should also investigate and interrogate senior officers who facilitated the culprits and even covered their wrong doings afterwards.
Most importantly, the importers and the bonded carriers who were caught red-handed were not being brought to task such as M/s E-Movers and M/s Ports Connection. It seems that NAB too is trying to make the customs officials escape goat and the officers and bonded carriers will be spared.
Lutfullah Virk, in his report, named Collector Peshawar Dr. Naeem Khan and then Director Intelligence Peshawar Akhlaq nKhattak, one additional collector and 20 other officials who were involved in this organized crime.