ISLAMABAD: A brazen faced scam of obtaining liquor license from official authorities concerned, by Muslim citizens under the garb of non-Muslim identity has come to open.
Two citizens were reported to have acquired alcohol selling license from the quarters concerned in Islamabad by showing themselves as Ahmadi, maddened by the desire for money, minting, while NADRA record exposed their real identity.
According to the official document received, Sun Diplomatic Bonded Ware House (SDBWH) Islamabad Director Ishtiaq Ahmad son of Gull Muhammad bearing Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) No 37405-8520084-5 and Tahir Mehmood Tareen son of Gull Muhammad bearing CNIC No 37405-4617203-5 had obtained liquor licenses by showing themselves as non-Muslims (Ahmadi) to sell liquor to Islamabad based foreign ambassadors.
According to the law, the liquor license can only be issued to non-Muslim citizens but these two owners of SDBWH had secured liquor license from relevant departments through deception and had imported and sold out liquor worth billions of rupees.
The documents disclosed that these offenders had also indulged in tax evasion of millions of rupees through cheating and deceitful means. Federal Board of Revenue employees were also allegedly involved in this mega corruption scandal.
The report said that Malik Amir is virtually behind the issuance of license No PWL/02/2005, 6989 to SDBWH and he was also the ring leader of this gang. Now another citizen is trying to obtain this license from Malik. This license was issued to SDBWH on October 31, 2013 and the owners of this firm in connivance with Customs’ authorities were evading customs duty.
The report revealed that the Director General (DG) of Intelligence and Investigation had ordered high level inquiry into the scam of acquiring liquor license through fraud and non-payment of millions of rupees in customs duty.
The SDBWH had caused loss amounting to Rs 800 million to the national kitty since 2013 under the head of customs duty. The company has imported precious liquor. Investigations against this company were launched in 2014 but the customs authorities had stopped the investigation in return for heavy bribe.
The SDBWH liquor license had expired on June, 30, 2016 but the customs authorities gave free hand to this company to import more costly alcohol. As per the report, the SDBWH had imported liquor costing 118 million dollars during the last two years and evaded duty of millions of rupees in the process. Malik brothers had shown cost of imported alcohol less in collusion with corrupt elements of Customs department to evade customs duty.
According to the documents’ record on importing alcohol of over 400 varieties in Pakistan had come to light but this alcohol has been sold out to ruling elite and affluent class of society instead of foreign envoys.
The record also said SDBWH was also registered with the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the cost of their capital shares was shown as Rs 100,000. The record reflected that the company holds 10,000 shares costing Rs 100 each. It also said that Collector Zeba Azhar had recommended cancelling the license of this company for evading customs duty and showing less value of 6 consignments of alcohol. But the members of customs and other senior officers of FBR had refused to cancel the same.
It revealed that out of liquor imported by this company for supply to Islamabad based foreign envoys, liquor worth Rs 16.31 million was sold to the elite class in Islamabad in 2013, Rs 4.3 million was sold in 2010, Rs 6.03 million in 2011 and Rs 26.22 million in 2012.
The liquor worth Rs 8.2 million was sold out to foreign ambassadors in 2010, Rs 17.28 million in 2011, Rs 19.39 million in 2012 and Rs 5.8 million in 2013. The online news service tried to contact the directors of SDBWH several times to ascertain their stance but no contact could be made with them.
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