KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has launched a probe against the importers and bonded careers, including M/s E-Movers Limited, for their alleged involvement in a pilferage scam while transporting consignments from Karachi to Peshawar Dry Port.
The company of Chief Collector South’s brother is also included in the list and the radar of NAB scrutinizing its record from Karachi, source informed Customs Today.
A source from NAB KPK said that the Director General NAB was very keen and serious in bringing the culprits to the justice who were involved in corruption and duty evasion.
“A high level official of NAB KPK has made contact to one officer of custom posted in Karachi and sought cooperation to collect relevant data a few days ago because the NAB officials want to ascertain the role of the customs official in this matter, ” sources further said.
It is pertinent to mention here that Peshawar Customs had lodged FIR against M/s E-Movers, the bonded careers, Muhammad Ibrahim proprietor of M/s Al-Wahab Enterprises, and Ibrar Hussain for their involvement in more than Rs 12 million tax evasion on September 7, 2016 after it was confirmed that the goods had been replaced during transshipment from Karachi to Peshawar. But the owner of the company, Mansoor Shaikh, in the meantime had got bail before arrest from the court.
During this period Mansoor Sheikh did not joined the investigation despite being served several notices till November 2016 while the other accused were arrested in Peshawar.
Afterwards the case filed against M/s E-Movers was sent to the Collectorate of Appraisement West in Karachi where Collector Shehnaz Maqbool was to head the further penalization and investigation against the company
Latter, the Collector MCC Appraisement West Shahnaz Maqbool suspended the license of M/s E-Movers after an officer of Peshawar customs Abdul Waheed was summoned to submit the details in June 2017 but it could last for just two days and then it was restored due to the influence of a very senior customs officer. It is also pertinent to mention that owner of M/s E-Movers is brother of Chief Collector South Abdul Rasheed Shaikh.
MCC Appraisement West had once again summoned M/s E-Movers Pvt Ltd for a hearing scheduled for August 18, 2017 regarding suspension of their bonded carrier license but nothing happened again.
In this regard when Customs Today tried to contact with Collector Shehnaz Maqbool and Chief Collector Abdul Rasheed Shaikh they were not available.