SHC seeks comments on former senator’s plea against FIA inquiry

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), a federal law officer and others on a petition filed by a former senator from the tribal areas and businessman against the initiation of an inquiry by the FIA with regard to import of jet fuel on behalf of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) support and procurement agency and misuse of customs general orders by various companies.

Taj Mohammad Afridi, a businessman who remained a senator till March 2021, submitted in the petition that a malicious campaign had been initiated against him and his companies after the award of a contract for the supply of jet fuel to the Nato support and procurement agency.

He said the complaint had been instigated by unknown persons at the behest of his business competitors, political rivals and people who were working against the interest of the country.

He submitted that it was an admitted position that the Federal Bureau of Revenue, customs authorities, the office of the federal ombudsman and the ministry of petroleum had all been approached by the ghost complainant through derogatory emails against him, but none of the authorities had found anything incriminating against him and his companies.

The former senator said the FIA, on the allegation of the ghost complaint, had taken cognisance of the complaint and issued notices to the customs collector and the PSO, respectively, for inquiring into details about the petitioner’s companies despite the fact that the allegation in the ghost complaint had already been dealt with by the competent authority of the customs and the same had been disregarded.

He said the reopening of the inquiry based on the same allegation by the FIA was completely arbitrary and illegal; even otherwise, it must be highlighted that the allegations of the complainant were misconceived in law and no illegality had been committed by the petitioner.

The former senator submitted that his company imported jet fuel for transit and supplied it to Nato without any modification; thus, there were no taxes or duties applicable to the same as per the Customs Act.

He challenged the FIA jurisdiction to take cognisance of or conduct an inquiry, arguing that the customs authorities were relevant authorities since the product in question had landed in Pakistan and directly transited to Afghanistan under the arrangements made with the United States officials and Pakistani government.

The petitioner submitted that he also approached the FIA to take action against persons who were causing damage to the petitioner and the image of Pakistan, but the FIA had failed to act on his applications.

The high court was requested to declare the FIA inquiry with regard to the import of jet fuel to be unlawful and direct the agency to take action on the petitioner’s application against malicious campaign against him.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro issued notices to the FIA, a federal law officer and others and called their comments.