December 4, 2002	Wednesday	Ramazan 28,1423

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FAISALABAD, Dec 3: A team of the local customs collectorate has enlarged the scope of inquiry into the discovery of wireless sets and high frequency mobile phones to trace the use of equipment in any subversive activity.

Talking to this correspondent here on Tuesday, a spokesman for the customs collectorate said that the authorities were taking this incident seriously and would spare nobody found guilty of helping the accused import sensitive material under the garb of scrap.

He clarified that the accused custom officials had auctioned off only one set at the Faisalabad Dry Port and the reference to a large number of sets was incorrect.

He claimed that the inquiry team was facing certain difficulties because of the existing checking laws. There is a clear provision that if any consignment is imported under fake names and the importer fails to get it cleared within the stipulated period, it should be confiscated by the CBR and auctioned off.

However, the CBR authorities cannot do so without approaching the agencies concerned if such a consignment involves arms and other sensitive material.

The way the wireless sets and high-frequency mobile phones were auctioned off immediately pointed to negligence on the part of the customs officials concerned rather than anything else, he said, adding that the officials seemed to have failed to judge the sensitivity of the material.

He said the CBR was adopting measures to prevent such incidents in future. All types of scrap would be rigorously checked on all ports of the country.

He said two inspectors, Nadeem Iqbal Bhatti and Mohammad Tanvir, and an appraiser for auction, Mohammad Jameel, had been suspended in this regard.

The licence of Pak International Customs Clearing and Forwarding Agents, which imported sensitive material under the garb of scrap, had also been cancelled, he added.

Meanwhile, all the three arrested shopkeepers, Asif, Kashif and Nadeem, have been granted bail by the customs judge.

A joint team of Intelligence Bureau, customs and police raided the local scrap market, Bilal Ganj, and recovered 1,500 mobile telephone sets of various international companies, four walkie-talkies, and 70 wireless sets from the shops of arrested shopkeepers on Nov 18.

It has been alleged that custom officials and functionaries of the Faisalabad Dry Port Trust are directly or indirectly involved in the import of highly sensitive equipment for communications.