KARACHI: Director General Customs Intelligence –FBR Abdul Rasheed Shaikh has approached Inspector General Sindh notifying him about the misuse of authority and patronizing of a habitual offender to malign the state machinery and manipulate the legal and administrative arms of the state against its own institutions.
Directorate of Intelligence & Investigation Karachi lodged an FIR against M/s Zubair Steel who was found involved in serious tax frauds leading to tax evasion of Rs24.65 million and money laundering of $0.439 million . The fraudulent importer has a history of fraudulent activities and facing prosecution in various cases involving Rs131 million which are under litigation at various judicial fora.
In the recent case, the accused Muhammad Zubair Gheewala (director/owner of M/s Zubair Steel Karachi) was arrested by the staff of customs intelligence and was released on bail by the customs court. Since a number of tax frauds have been unearthed against the accused, therefore, in order to obstruct further action by customs, Muhammad Zubair Gheewala filed false applications with Sindh Police and Additional Session Judge Karachi (East) to lodge FIR against customs intelligence.
Said applications contained misleading accusations and were not entertained by the Sindh Police or Additional Session Judge Karachi (East). The SHO PS Ferozabad submitted, “It is respectfully replied that the tided application filed by the petitioner/applicant is a counter attack is preplanned, and after thought for gaining undue favor in the referred FIR lodged by Customs Intelligence.”
Later, Zubair Gheewala filed another application before the court of District & Session Judge (East) and enclosed with it a misleading report that was issued by Farooq Ahmed Bijrani, SP Jamshed Division, East Karachi. In contradiction with the earlier police Report of SHO, SP Jamshed Division issued a highly questionable Report which casts serious doubts on the bonafide of the officer. Said Report was issued without incorporating stance of the customs, and it instantly reached in the hands of Gheewala.
Director General Customs Intelligence and Investigation –FBR, Abdul Rasheed Shaikh informed the Inspector General of Police Sindh that it needs probe as to what was the motive of SP Jamshed Division who deliberately avoided to carry out a simple process of verification of the relevant record and disregarded earlier Report of SHO in a very sketchy manner.
“While customs was totally unaware regarding SP Jamshed Division’s Report or the second court application filed by the accused importer, the said Report of SP found its way straight in to the hands of the accused importer who submitted it along with its application before the District & Session Judge East Karachi. In this manner, a biased report was issued by hiding certain facts and misrepresenting others and the highest office of Pakistan Customs Intelligence has been falsely implicated in an FIR at the behest of a fraudulent tax evader with the help of SP Jamsheed Division who acted so mindlessly that he even included the Director General, a BS-22 officer, in the FIR without recourse to any verification”.
Shaikh said this is an illustrative case which reflects how fraudulent elements use their cult, influence and ill-gotten money to engage lawyers (known for fraudulent maneuverings) to openly challenge the writ of the state and manipulate the legal and administrative arms of the state against its own institutions. “It reflects a very sorry state of affairs and warrants action at the highest level to serve as a deterrence for recurrence of such incidents in future”.
Moreover, Federal finance minister Shaukat Tarin has also written a letter to Chief Minister Sindh inquiring about the misuse of authority by SP Jamshed Division.
Meanwhile, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Karachi has lodged two more FIRs against several importers including M/s Zubair Steel, M/s Hassan Steels, M/s Steel Vision, M.s Integra Trading Company and M/s Cosmos Trading for fiscal fraud through admission of fake and fabricated import documents and gross mis-declaration of the imported goods (iron and steel sheets both primary and secondary coated) causing an un-authorized transfer of foreign exchange from Pakistan, smuggling of Pakistani-owned goods to Export Processing Zone, evasion of government revenue and claiming undue exemptions on the basis of fake documents.
The above mentioned cartel evaded a total of Rs12.45 million as per the content of these two FIRs. Several FIRs have already been lodged against the above mentioned accused, while several FIRs are in queue against the same at MCC Appraisement and MCC Port Qasim. An official said when first detected, it seemed to be a small-scale evasion case, but as the investigations proceeded, it turned out to be a case involving billions of rupees.