TAXILA: Two labourers from a village in Attock, who worked at a textile mills in Gadoon Industrial Estate in KP four years ago, have been informed by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that transactions worth millions of rupees were carried out from bank accounts in their names.

Atif Mehmood, a resident of remote Bhatiotvillage in Attock, in a notice has been asked by the FBR to respond to the allegations of money laundering and tax evasion.

According to the notice, transactions of Rs4.97 million and Rs4.98 million were made from his bank account.

But talking to newsmen Mr Mehmood expressed ignorance about the account and the transactions. He said he worked as a daily-wage labourer in a Karachi-based textile mill in Gadoon Industrial Estate during 2014-15. He said he had deposited a copy of his computerised national identity card (CNIC) in the mill. He suspected that the copy of the CNIC might have been used to open the bank account in a private bank in his name followed by a total transaction of Rs9.95 million from it.

Liaquat Ali Khan, another labourer from the same village, also worked as a daily wage labourer in the textile mill in Gadoon Industrial Estate in 2014-15 along with Atif. Later, he left the job and joined Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco).

An investigation by the FBR revealed that transactions of Rs4.4 million, Rs4.6 million and Rs2.8 million had been made from the bank account in the name of Mr Khan.

But Mr Khan said he was unaware of the account and got to know about it only after the FBR summoned him. Both the labourers have requested the government to arrest the culprits.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2019