DERA GHAZI KHAN, July 27: A district excise officer and six other officials have been issued notices after a Rs5 million scam has been detected at a token branch.

On the directions of the Punjab excise and taxation director-general, District Excise and Taxation Officer Muhammad Shafi Gashkori initiated an inquiry into financial irregularities in the department’s token branch from 2000.

The preliminary investigation revealed that Rs5 million had been appropriated by the excise officials, including the then DETO.

DETO Shafi Gashkori told Dawn that he had been inspecting the whole record from 2000 and had found copious wrong entries.

He said an embezzlement of Rs5 million in challan forms had been detected during preliminary investigation.

He said Amanullah Butt, the then DETO, assistant DETO Qazi Rafiq and five clerks — Khalil, Munir, Ijaz Bhatti, Husain Bakhsh and Syed Ali — had been served with show-cause notices.

He said, however, a high-level inquiry would be proposed to fix responsibility for the irregularities.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Dera Ghazi Khan excise and taxation director is trying to abuse his influence in the departmental inquiry.