Vehicle registrationscam unearthed

Calls for a thorough probe have intensified as concerns grow over systemic fraud

ISLAMABAD:

The capital district administration and police have detained 25 agents in three 'managed' operations outside the Excise and Taxation Office, Islamabad in the last fortnight in connection with a scandal of illegal registrations of non-custom paid (NCP) vehicles and heavy bikes. However, the officials turned a blind eye to the alleged organised network within the excise office.

Informed sources told The Express Tribune that the network of excise officials allegedly involved in the registrations was 'deliberately' skipped.

The main objective of three consecutive operations, executed in the last fortnight, was to protect the systematic fraud going on in the excise office, they added.

The sources further said that the latest raid was nothing more than a 'managed' raid in which only eight agents were detained and locked up in the police station. The suspects were not investigated in the real sense to reach out to their alleged support network within the excise office, they added.

The sources further added that if even one of the 25 arrested agents and members of the tout mafia were investigated for 100% merit, the entire network established in the excise office from top to bottom could be exposed.

The arrest of a computer operator of the Chief Commissioner's office during the FIA's investigation was shown as a pawn to save the real network of the excise department, the sources said, adding that registering non-custom paid vehicles and heavy bikes was not just a job of computer operator Hilal, but the relevant officers and officials were also involved in more than six steps related to vehicle registration.

Instead of investigating them, the excise office allegedly suppressed the matter by restricting the investigation and limiting it to Hilal and securing the arrest of two more computer operators to fulfil formalities. Excise office officials said that they got two employees arrested.

The sources further said that for the last five years, instead of appointing permanent gazetted officers, most of the officers in the excise office from top to bottom had been appointed on an ad-hoc basis.

Excise Director Bilal Azam could not be reached for his version, however, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon said that the action against the agents was taken by the Industrial Area Assistant Commissioner (AC).