Amraiz Khan
Lahore
The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has registered an unprecedented case worth Rs. 300 billion against 18 excise officials however investigators were trying to facilitate the accused. A senior officer of ACE seeking anonymity said that investigator Aitazaz Munir Gondal was giving VIP treatment to arrested accused Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) Adeel Amjad who is the main accused of the scandal.
A case of disappearance of records has been registered against 18 involved officers and officials including four directors of excise department, three ETOs and six DEOs.
Anti-Corruption Region A arrested ETO Adeel Amjad while Excise directors Rizwan Akram, Muhammad Asif, Sohail Ashraf and others have been booked in a major anti-corruption operation in a Rs 300 billion mega scandal. The Excise department sent confirmation letters of missing records of 4397 vehicles to anti-corruption. So called raids were being carried out to arrest the excise department officials involved in the mega scandal to bring the scandal to a final conclusion. The Lahore Excise Department had handed over the details of vehicles registered for auction from 2015 to 2018 to Anti-Corruption.
According to excise data, between 2015 and 2018, 7013 vehicles were registered on auction vouchers. 1290 vehicles were registered in the name of Kausur Abbas, an employee of Khurram Gujjar. Kasur Iqbal in his statement to the anti-corruption investigation team had expressed all kinds of detachment from these vehicles. 996 vehicles were registered in the name of stamp dealer Ali Arzi Shah in three years.
The stamp dealer, in his statement to the investigation team, expressed dissatisfaction with all the vehicles. Other front men Talal Tayyab and Adil Butt also expressed dissatisfaction with the vehicles registered in their names.
The excise department does not have scan data of more than 4,000 vehicles registered for auction. From 2015 to 2018, auction vouchers have been sent to the concerned agencies for verification.
Complete data of buyers is being obtained from NADRA. Excise officials and other stakeholders involved in the eye opening scandal have caused a loss of at least Rs 300 billion to the exchequer, according to the investigation so far.
The accused illegally registered thousands of commercial vehicles on the basis of fake auctions in the name of the intelligence agency.
Not only was there fraud with the car companies but also with the people who bought it.
All the facts of this great scandal in the history of the country will soon be laid before the nation. All the characters involved in this mega scandal will reach their final destination and the damage to the public exchequer will be compensated.
It is worth mentioning here that ACE had actually failed to lay hands on Khuram Gujar an influential and right hand man of Minister Excise, It is to recall that when this minister Hafiz Mumtaz took charge of his office he visited Dera of Khuram Gujjar in DHA. Pictures and videos of this visit were uploaded on social media by the gangster Khurram Gujjar and one can easily see him welcoming the Excise Minister along with his gunmen and gang members. An Excise Director whose name was not in the FIR on the condition of not to be named said, registration of vehicles, verification of genuineness of registration documents, transfer of ownership, printing of registration book cards, digital scanning of documents is the sole legal responsibility of Motor Registration Authority (MRA) or Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) district.
Reference Section 24, 25 of Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965. Rule 28 of Motor Vehicle Rules 1969. Excise and Taxation Department, standing Operating Procedures 2010 bearing No-1/2007 MTMIS Cell dated 18-10-2010.
When contacted Aitizaz Munir Gondal and asked about the progress made in the case, he refused to talk on the issue.
