KARACHI: In a surprising move Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has notified transfers and postings of Principal Appraisers (PA) and Appraising Officers (AO) with immediate effect.

These transfers are not only surprising, rather official circles term this reshuffling a vengeful victimisation of certain officials.

AO Raja Waseem Ahmed is transferred to MCC Gilgit-Baltistan from MCC Appraisement West. AO Javed Khalid is transferred to MCC Quetta from MCC Appraisement West.

Raja Wasim and Javed Khalid led the campaign that resulted in strike against Chief Collector Appraisement South. Therefore, as a punishment they have been transferred to different provinces. The strike was arranged against the orders of Chief Collector that documents should not be called and examination should not be done in a verbal order. Since, these verbal orders had no legal standing and left the appraising staff open to cases.

Itmay be mentioned here that if there is no examination, the frauds/scams can not be detected through Post Release Verification (PRV) and Post Clearance Audit (PCA).

Itmay be mentioned here that a number of officers and officials were transferred whoever tried to check/scrutinize consignments of Mansoor Sheikh (brother of Chief Collector) were transferred.

First of all Chief Collector included companies in green channel facility without due process. Secondly, officials were transferred under charges of corruption who tried to scrutinize or examine green channel consignments. Thirdly, contravention reports were withdrawn so that profile of importers remained safe. And then verbal orders were issued not to call documents and examine the consignments. All this along with interference with work led to strike in protest against chief collector.

Chief Collector was pressurizing Chairman FBR for strict action against the officials taking part in the strike. Chief Collector Abdul Rasheed Sheikh had forwarded a list of officials for reshuffling and Member Customs Zahid Khokhar approved the recommendations.

PA Sajid Ali Bhutto, AOs Atta-ur-Rahman, Amir Nasir Ali, Ehtesham-ul-Haq, Malik Shahid Iqbal, Raja Shaekeel Ahmed and Ms. Khizra Saeed have been transferred to Directorate General of Transit Trade, Karachi from MCC Appraisement West, Karachi.

PA Saif-ur-Rehman and AO Shafqat Abbas Gondal are transferred to Directorate General of Transit Trade, Karachi from MCC Port Qasim. PA Najam-us-Saqib is moved to Post Clearance Audit Karachi from MCC Appraisement East. PA Mohammad Anjum Barakzai is moved to MCC Appraisement West from Directorate of Transit Trade. PA Tariq Ahmed Mahesar is moved to MCC Port Qasim from Transit Trade Karachi. PA Ms. Ishrat Ayaz is moved to MCC Appraisement East from MCC Exports Karachi. PA Ghulam Murtaza Bangash is moved to MCC Exports to MCC Appraisement East.

AO Salman Bukhari is moved to Transit Trade from MCC Appraisement West. AO Faiz Mudassir to MCC Appraisement Lahore from Post Clearance Audit Karachi. AO FArhan Mehdi to Post Clearance Audit from MCC Appraisement East. AO Syed Siddiqullah to Post Clearance Audit from MCC Appraisement West. AO Raja Waseem Ahmed is transferred to MCC Gilgit-Baltistan from MCC Appraisement West. AO Javed Khalid is transferred to MCC Quetta from MCC Appraisement West. AO Imran Aslam Gul is moved to Internal Audit Karachi from MCC Appraisement West. AO Arif Ali Shahzad to IOCO Karachi from MCC Appraisement West. AO Naqan Tauqeer to MCC Port Qasim from Transit Trade Karachi. AO Nafees Uddin Qureshi to MCC Port Qasim from Transit Trade Karachi. AO Junaid Ahmed to MCC Appraisement East and AO Amjad Iqbal to MCC Appraisement West from Transit Trade Karachi.

AO Abdul Aziz Usmani to MCC Appraisement West from MCC Preventive Karachi. AO Arjad Abbas to MCC Islamabad from MCC Appraisement East.AO Akbar Khan Chandio to MCC Appraisement East  and AO Mohammad Naeem Khan to MCC Appraisement West from MCC Port Qasim. AO Mohammad Shahzad to MCC Appraisement Lahore from Post Clearance Audit Lahore. AO Shahzad Malik to Post Clearance Audit Lahore from MCC Appraisement Lahore. AO Noor Ekahi to MCC Port Qasim from MCC Appraisement West and AO Ghulam Asghar Mirani to MCC Port Qasim from MCC Appraisement East. Preventive Officer Ms. Hajab Nawaz is transferred to MCC Preventive Lahore from MCC Preventive Karachi.

There have been a lot of irregularities and violation of laws at Appraisement South.

The companies who had not developed their profile were registered in the Green Channel. Contraventions were withdrawn against importers who were defrauding exchequer. All this was on the directives of Chief Collector and officials said it resulted in loss to national exchequer to the tune of billions.

Officials said M/s Digicom (Qmobile) cleared a big consignment of mobile phones in the garb of LED lights from Green Channel, but the Chief Collector did not initiated any inquiry that how could this happen.

Sources said FBR could conduct a detailed inquiry into the entire Green Channel scam in Appraisement South and input of Additional Collector RMS Azhar Merchant, Collector Appraisement East Ashad Jawad, Collector Appraisement West Shahnaz Maqbool may result in eye-opening revelations.