HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Customs seized a BMW Emblazoned with the UN logos on its way from Baluchistan to Jacobabad.
The driver of the vehicle identified himself as the legal attorney of the United Nations in Pakistan, and the BMW driven by him as a UN vehicle having been allotted to him by the UN.
He produced an “Approval Certificate” to Customs, bearing UN and Government of Pakistan logos simultaneously, in addition to mentioning the Ministry of Interior under the United Nations caption.
This document referred to the regional office of the UN and the Ministry of Interior housed in a bungalow in Model Town, Lahore, under the signature of a foreigner.
The driver claimed that he was en route to Lahore from Quetta through Jacobabad in the wee hours, after having attended a hearing in the Baluchistan High Court on behalf of the UN.
On being contacted by Hyderabad Customs, the Head of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Pakistan confirmed that the UN neither owns the BMW in question nor had it engaged the lawyer posing himself as the legal attorney of the UN.
He also clarified that the UN Mission is not located in Lahore in the bungalow mentioned in the “Approval Certificate” furnished by the driver and that the UN number plate found on the BMW actually pertained to a motorcycle in use by the UN many years ago.
All in all, this constituted a case of forged UN proprietary documents with the use of garbled UN-GoP logos to provide cover to the smuggling of a BMW from Baluchistan into some other part of the country.
There is no record of the import of the said vehicle into Pakistan, as confirmed from the Customs database. Hyderabad Customs has accordingly seized the BMW and has registered an FIR against the person from whose custody it was retrieved.