SWABI: The excise department along with district police raided the residence of former speaker of National Assembly Asad Qaiser in Marghuz village here on Thursday and recovered some ‘illegal’ vehicles from it.

The excise and taxation department officials told Dawn that the nature of the car and other vehicles were not known yet but they received information about presence of illegal vehicles in possession of Asad Qaiser.

“The nature of the recovered vehicles would be determined very soon,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

He said that process was under way to determine the correct nature of the vehicles recovered from the house of the former speaker of National Assembly.

DPO Najamul Hussain, when contacted, said that excise officials told him that the SHO of Zaida police station should not be part of the raiding team. He said that just a few policemen and lady constables were part of the raiding team.

However, Asad Qaiser alleged in a tweeted that illegal raid was carried out by police on his house in Swabi.

“During the raid two vehicles were forcibly taken away from my house. Despite the bail in all the fake FIRs from the concerned courts, the sanctity of boundary wall is being violated, which is a violation of basic human rights and Pakhtun traditions,” he said.

He further said: “Our struggle will continue until the restoration of true democracy, rule of law and supremacy of Constitution.”

The video of the vehicles and raid went viral on social media and people expressed surprise over the presence of the vehicles at Mr Qaiser’s residence despite the ouster of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government.

Regional director of excise and taxation Fawad Iqbal, when contacted, said that neither Swabi nor Mardan office of the department conducted the raid on Mr Qaiser’s residence.

Officials claimed that the vehicles were not registered but the claim was denied by Mr Qaiser’s family.

The recovered vehicles include one Lexus V8 bearing number plate STM-16, one Honda Oriel with Islamabad number plate AAS-118 and one Vigo with official number plate B-1820. However, only two vehicles were shown in the video.

The vehicles have been taken into official custody and an investigation has been initiated against former speaker of National Assembly and his brothers – former MNA Aqibullah and former MPA Adnan.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2023