PESHAWAR, Nov 5: In the single-largest departmental scrutiny in Pakistan's history, over 100 police and customs officials in the NWFP were interrogated by the National Accountability Bureau
as part of a probe into a smuggling syndicate feeding 'Bara markets' in the country, senior official sources said.
Background interviews with officials investigating one of the country's biggest contraband smuggling syndicates following the arrest in May 2004 of its don, Mohammad Tahir alias Malang, revealed that NAB spent hundreds of hours questioning more than 50 police officers and officials allegedly on the payroll to allow unfettered access of smuggled goods to Bara markets.
"If we count the hours that we have spent interrogating officials on the take from Malang, the figure goes into hundreds of hours", said one senior investigator. Additionally, said investigators, NAB also questioned about two dozen customs officials for their alleged connection with the Malang syndicate.
"We have made some progress, it is not (an) ideal (situation) but we have made some ground," said one official who said that the enormity of the case and efforts to collect evidence against the accused officials was both a tedious as well as time-consuming job.
Those called over by NAB to face questioning included both serving and retired police and customs officials, sources said. Also questioned were Malang and his partner Bakht Sher who provided investigators with startling details of payments made to police and customs officials.
Already, these sources told Dawn, NAB had issued questionnaires to some police and customs officials seeking details and sources of their incomes and assets as a possible prelude to lodging formal cases of corruption against them.
Officials also do not rule out the possibility of arrests of some officials in connection with the Malang case. It all began on May 24, when following a chase and a shootout, the Criminal Investigation Department seized Malang, an Afghan refugee who by his "generosity" towards the law enforcing agencies, carved a niche for himself amongst the handful of smuggling cartels in Peshawar that feed Bara markets in the NWFP and Punjab.
His arrest triggered a chain reaction that in its wake dragged the names of senior police and customs officers into what would become one of Pakistan's biggest bribery scandals.
The blame-game began following a statement by Malang duly recorded on a VCD while in the CID custody naming and identifying police and customs officials, court officials and a journalist allegedly on being his payroll to facilitate his business.
Dawn has obtained the CD that contains Malang's two statements before interrogators at the CID. It was that CD in which Malang not only provided the names of the police, customs and court officials with the name of a journalist allegedly on his payroll but revealed details and amounts of the daily and monthly payments made to them to keep his operations going.
Though officials insist that Malang's video-recorded statements are of no value in the court of law, they, however, do acknowledge his rather startling revelations provide an insight into the scale and magnitude of corruption in the law enforcement agencies.
If Malang's revelations are anything to go by, he allegedly paid all seven police stations situated on the road between the Khyber region and the Punjab. Among the officials, he claimed to have been paying to facilitate his smuggling syndicate, are officers from the ranks of SSPs, SPs, DSPs, SHOs and their henchmen. The highest amount among those allegedly on the take was a former Nowshera SP, whom he is alleged to have paid Rs500,000 per month.
The officer in question, now commanding an important posting in the province, has been issued a questionnaire by NAB to provide details of his assets and sources of income, official sources said.
Another former SP who also commanded Nowshera district, was removed and made an OSD after NAB summoned him to face investigation in connection with Malang's claim that he had paid the officer Rs200,000 per month.
Malang is also alleged to have paid between Rs40,000 to Rs70,000 for every truck transporting contraband foreign goods to the various police stations situated on the way of his smuggling route.
The Nowshera-based correspondent of a local Urdu daily was allegedly paid Rs10,000 every month to stop him from printing stories about smuggling. The reader of a customs judge was allegedly paid between Rs20,000 and Rs50,000 to expedite every bail application. Customs mobile squads deployed on the route from Peshawar to Nowshera allegedly received a fixed monthly payment of Rs50,000 and Rs3,000 per vehicle per trip.
The bizarre twist to the whole story came after a claim by Malang's partner, Bakht Sher told investigators he had paid Rs2 million in two instalments to an officer in-charge of the whole case who had allegedly threatened to implicate Malang in other cases unless paid.
In a statement, surreptitiously recorded on video and a copy of which was made available to Dawn, Bakht Sher provided investigators graphic details of the payments made to the officer at two different locations in Peshawar and details of the many telephonic contacts with him.
