RAWALPINDI: The director general of customs intelligence and investigation who was leading the investigation into 330 luxury vehicles customs claims were brought into the country illegally was transferred to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday.

According to sources, Shaukat Ali, a BPS-21 official from the Pakistan Customs Service who was serving as the director general of the FBR’s General Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, has been transferred to FBR Headquarters.

BPS-20 official Irum Maqbool Amir has been given additional charge as intelligence and investigation director general.

Mr Ali was leading the investigation into the case of 330 luxury vehicles, 23 of which have been recovered by customs.

He had sought assistance from the inspectors general of police Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan, Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan to recover 254 vehicles that were allegedly brought into the country illegally by evading customs duty and taxes worth Rs6 billion.

According to sources the vehicles were imported in the name of a member of the Qatari ruling family and his relatives, and had been in the use of a number of Pakistanis including a parliamentarian.

The customs intelligence wing recovered 21 luxury vehicles during a raid on a compound of Redco Textiles, owned by former senator Saifur Rehman, on Sept 27, located in the limits of the Rawat police.

Published in Dawn, October 30th , 2018