NAB arrests seven customs officials

LAHORE
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested seven officials of Pakistan Customs including an additional director.
The arrested officials were identified as Amir Rasheed Sheikh, additional Collector Customs, Karachi (then Deputy Collector Customs, Lahore), Muhammad Tufail, ex-Assistant Collector Customs, Lahore, Khalid Mehmood, ex-Superintendent Customs, Lahore, Muhammad Afzal Dogar, Inspector Inland Revenue, Lahore (then Inspector Customs and Central Excise, Lahore), Muhammad Akram, Inspector Inland Revenue, Lahore (then Inspector Customs and Central Excise, Lahore), Sheikh M Nadeem Latif, Inspector Customs, Lahore (then Inspector Customs and Central Excise, Lahore) and Syed Ali Abbas, Inspector Customs, Lahore (then Inspector Customs and Central Excise, Lahore).
They have been arrested on charges of abuse of power and illicit personal gains worth Rs 185 million.
According to NAB spokesman, the accused with the connivance Directors of M/S Al-Shamsher Engineering (Pvt) Ltd caused loss to the national exchequer to the tune of Rs 185 million through evading duty by misusing and violating the conditions of the concessionary SROs during 1997 to 2003.
The accused, he added, used to import raw material and sell it in the open market on high prices instead of using it for the required purposes under the laid down conditions. They committed corruption and corrupt practices, misuse of authority and caused loss to national money, he added.
The NAB arrested Amir Rashid Sheikh from Karachi and will be brought to Lahore on interim remand and will be produced before an accountability court.
All other accused will be produced before an accountability court in Lahore for their physical remand. More arrests are expected in the case.
It is pertinent to mention here that since mid-August 2015, besides arresting senior PPP leader Qasim Zia and Shaukatullah Khan Bangash, son of a PPP Senator Haji Saifullah Khan Bangash, NAB Lahore has arrested over a dozen of accused.
Only a couple of days back, Accountability Bureau arrested several members of a land mafia involved in
one of Gujranwala’s major cooperative housing society scams worth millions of rupees and hundreds of acres of land.