RAWALPINDI: The legal team representing supermodel Ayyan Ali finally received copies of case documents from the customs officials after a Rawalpindi judge reprimanded them for not providing the same within the stipulated timeframe.

Special Judge Banking Court Sabir Sultan – who was hearing the case in his capacity as an acting judge of the Custom, Excise and Taxation Court – remarked, “Police is [usually] blamed for employing such delaying tactics. I was not expecting that agencies such as [customs] showed such performance.”

Also read: Glamour turns grim as Ayyan investigations reach her mother

“You need to provide documents like FIR, copy of challan, site plan, inspection reports, property seizure memo and statements of witnesses to her without any delay,” Judge Sultan said.

Sardar Mohammad Ishaq, Ms Ali’s counsel, told the court that custom officials had already been directed by the court to provide the necessary documents to the accused before these proceedings, but they had not complied by May 7. In such a situation, he argued, the court may pass an order to release Ms Ali on bail.

FBR told Ms Ali owned no property in Bahria Town

The judge then directed the prosecution to submit all case documents before the court by 12 noon. At 12:40pm, when the judge resumed proceedings in the matter, Customs Investigation Officer Manzoor Hussain provided copies of the documents to Ms Ali’s counsel and asked her to sign a receipt.

Observing that he was only hearing the matter as an acting judge, he could not proceed further and indict the accused.

“Further proceedings in this matter would be conducted by the trial court,” he said and extended Ms Ali’s physical remand until May 18.

Bahria Town property

Separately, officials from the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation told Dawn that the administration of Bahria Town had confirmed that Ms Ali did not own any plots in that housing society under her own name.

In a two-page statement recorded when she was initially detained, Ms Ali had claimed that she obtained the bulk of the money – over $500,000 in cash – through the sale of five files of Bahria Town properties through Messrs First Choice, a Dubai-based firm.

However, Additional Director Inland Revenue Qaisar Ishfaq told Dawn that when the I&I directorate wrote to Bahria Town asking for confirmation of Ms Ali’s claims, they had said that Ms Ali did not own any property in any Bahria Town across Pakistan.

In her initial statement, Ms Ali had said that the plots were owned by her brother Zulfiqar Ali and herself. Mr Ishfaq told Dawn, however, that Zulfiqar Ali was “not a taxpayer”, so the I&I directorate would be investigating his sources of income.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2015

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