ISLAMABAD – The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered a case after a major scandal involving the alleged disappearance of cigarettes worth Rs250 million from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) warehouses has come to light.
The case was registered by the FIA Anti-Corruption Circle on the complaint of Assistant Director FIA Muhammad Safir Ahmed. Five FBR officials and employees, along with three people associated with a private company, have been named as suspects.
The nominated FBR personnel include Inspectors Kamran and Naveed, a driver, a security guard and a naib qasid. Two directors and a manager of a private company have also been named in the case.
According to the FIR, 1,262 cartons of cigarettes were seized in Swabi in February 2024 and subsequently stored at an FBR warehouse in Mardan.
The FIR states that FBR inspectors Kamran and Naveed later moved 1,202 cartons from Mardan back to Swabi. When the trucks reached the Swabi warehouse, an inspection reportedly found 908 cartons missing.
The case documents further state that three months after the incident, authorities claimed to have recovered 907 cartons. However, a formal inspection conducted a year later reportedly found a total of 2,828 cartons missing, including the 907 cartons that had previously been reported as recovered.
According to the investigation team, FBR inspectors and other staff were allegedly directly involved in the disappearance and, in collusion with each other, caused an estimated loss of Rs250 million to the national exchequer.
The preliminary investigation also reportedly found that no logbook had deliberately been maintained at the warehouses and that CCTV cameras had not been installed for security purposes.
The FIA has collected evidence related to the case and intensified efforts to arrest the nominated suspects.
