22 July 2004	Thursday	04 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

LAHORE, July 21: Ten Customs officials allegedly involved in a multi-million scam have been shifted to Karachi and remanded in four-day police custody.

Official sources told Dawn that the Customs Intelligence took some of the 10 accused with them on Sunday and arrested the others on Tuesday after summoning them to Karachi on pretext of inquiry.

The scam was unearthed last week when a Customs Intelligence team arrived here on reports that some officials had been involved in corruption. The accused officials had been doing the business in connivance with different firms and export houses at the Mughalpura Dry Port.

An official at the dry port said that the accused had lately cleared a consignment of a company against rules and regulations. The officials used to show low weight of any such consignment or change on paper the goods in them to make the duty as low as the exporter intended to, he added.

It saved the exporter millions against duty, and he, in return, paid a handsome amount to the customs officials, he maintained. The main accused shifted to Karachi were identified as Customs Superintendent Chaudhry Muhammad Fazal, Deputy Superintendents Chaudhry Muhammad Idrees and Amin Kamboh and Inspectors, Imtiaz Butt, Fyaz Ahmad and Anwaar Baig besides other low rank officials.

Of the last consignment, the sources said, it was carrying tents for Gulf States. These tents had been shown old in the bill of entry, they added. The consignment had been cleared from the Lahore Dry Port and it was on Karachi port when the Customs Intelligence was tipped off. The consignment consisted of 61 containers.

Actually, the sources said, it was reported to the intelligence wing because of a rift among the directors of the company. None of the company directors or any officials had so far been arrested as one of its main owners Farhan Ahmad and a clearing agent Mujib Haq had reportedly escaped abroad, the sources said.

The sources said an important official of the company had been married to a senior Customs official, who had allegedly been playing an active role in getting his consignments cleared at the dry port.

Although his wife was not posted at the dry port, she dictated to another woman official there to get the job done, they said. The two women officers and some others are expected to be questioned in the inquiry, the sources said.