MULTAN: Corruption of Principal Appraiser Dost Muhammad, Incharge R&D section of the Customs Appraisement East Collectorate, is posing serious threat to the national security as he is involved in smuggling of hazardous material in the country for kickbacks.
Recent incidents of clearing smuggled goods through TP is one of the biggest corruption scams and clearance of banned items without checking is a serious question mark on the face of whole customs department.
These views were expressed by former President Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi while talking to Customs Today.
He said that smuggling of banned items from the port through transshipment phenomena indicates widespread corruption in the department. Collectorate of Appraisement East R&D department failed to fulfill their assigned responsibilities and Principal Appraiser Dost Muhammad is openly facilitating smugglers for smuggling banned items in the country and it is one of the latest examples of systematic corruption that has grasped the whole Customs department due to their inefficient administration.
Roomi said that Customs Department should take stern action against corrupt official Dost Muhammad and as he extended his bribery network into smuggling due to negligence of administration.
Businessmen have raised their concerns over the corruption and negative behavior of staff deputed at port. Due to their negative behavior and collection of huge bribe from importers the ease of doing business cannot work. He said that collection of revenue for government is not their priority but they work for their pockets to cause huge loss to the national exchequer.
He said that clearance of banned items will create hurdles for Pakistani importers and investors in the upcoming days, and several countries may impose ban on the import of shipments due to threat of terrorism. This is the best opportunity for customs department to streamline their loopholes after this scam and administration should bring reforms in the laws to avoid any incident in future.
He suggested that the government should publish the amount of duties that importers are supposed to pay for the clearance of shipments and allow them to pay directly without any intervention.
He said that customs administration is not ready to correct things even after surfacing of this scam of Dost Muhammad. The government should conduct fair trial against corrupt customs officials like Dost Muhammad for betterment of business community and all import done under his supervision should be scrutinized again.
Principal Appraiser Dost Muhammad was working against the state through clearance of hazardous material in the country after taking huge bribe and his case should be handed over to national security agencies for verifying that he was working for Customs or any banned outfit to destroy law and order situation, Roomi concluded.
