KARACHI: A court has issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of three absconding officials of the Pakistan Customs in a case pertaining to a mega smuggling scam
Three former collectors enforcement – Usman Bajwa, Saquif Saeed and Amir Thaheem – along with two Customs’ Anti-Smuggling Organisation (ASO) superintendents – Tariq Mehmood and Yawar Abbas – and Preventive Officer Muhammad Tayyab Khan have been booked by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for allegedly receiving huge bribes for facilitating transportation of betel nuts, Iranian oil and other smuggled goods through land routes of Karachi and Balochistan.
Mehmood and Abbas are currently in judicial custody while Amir Thaeem and an alleged betel nut smuggler – Imran Noorani – are out on bail, according to an interim charge sheet filed by the FIA before the court.
Bajwa, Saeed and Tayyab have been shown as absconding accused in the challan. As the case came up for hearing before Special Judge (Central-I) Shabana Waheed, she issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the absconding accused with a direction to the investigation officer to arrest and produce them before the court on the next hearing date on August 8.
According to the charge sheet, an FIA team conducted a raid in the domestic lounge of the Jinnah International Airport on July 13 and arrested Mehmood and Abbas who were travelling to Islamabad on a two-day personal visit.
It stated that during a search of the official vehicle of the suspects parked in the airport’s parking lot, Rs5.43 million, 2,406 US dollars and 6,100 UAE dirhams were found and the officials failed to give any plausible explanation for that and voluntarily admitted that the amount was ‘speed money’, which was collected by them from the Customs check post in Mochko, District Keamari, to distribute it among various Customs officials through some collectors, additional collectors, deputy collectors, superintendents and other officials.
The IO, Ummara Qureshi, said the officials disclosed that officers posted at Customs’ check posts at Mochko, Hamdard Chowk, Super Highway, National Highway/Ghaghar Phatak and other areas, used to collect monthly bribes/illegal gratification under the guise of ‘speed money’ to allow smuggling of betel nuts, Iranian diesel and other items by smugglers such as Aslam, Shah Khalid, Ghulab Shah, Noor, Nazar, Akbar Baloch, Raheem, Ali Zehr, Ghous, Waheed Kakar, Khuda Dost, Khuda-e-Nazar, Bakhtayar, Raheem, Ismail, Noor Ahmed, Qasim, Saeed, Naseer, Salar and others.
She said the suspect, Mehmood, had disclosed that huge payments of bribe/speed money were given to other Customs officers in the shape of gold bars, adding that this was corroborated with the receipts of Jewel Palace seized from proprietor Muhammad Munir in Clifton.
