Arms import racket: Letter implicates customs officer, ex-MNA

Import licences of civil officials and sensitive agencies allegedly used.

LAHORE:

Customs collector Salman Abbasi has been accused of clearing a cache of automatic weapons worth millions of rupees and passing it off as a consignment of semi-automatic weapons.

Abbasi has been charged with acting in collusion with a former PML-Q lawmaker Ejaz Diyal and another person Farhan in the racket. The three men are charged with using single import licences of civil officials and members of sensitive agencies to execute the scheme.

These charges are contained in a letter sent to federal interior and commerce secretaries, chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), DG ISI, DG FIA and IG Police Punjab by one who called himself ‘well-wisher of Pakistan’. The Lahore customs collector is also alleged to have used his subordinate staff to harass the business rivals of Diyal in order to extract bribes running into millions of rupees.

The letter says Abbasi also used his influence to shield from prosecution his brother implicated in the smuggling case of 28kg of gold.  It goes on to allege that Abbasi, acting in tandem with his unannounced business partners, used the single import licences issued by the commerce ministry to officials of sensitive agencies for semi-automatic weapons to import lethal automatic weapons and then sell them in the open market.

When Abbasi was contacted to get his version of the story, he called the allegations baseless and requested that these not be publicised.  Ex-MNA Ejaz Diyal pleaded ignorance about any such letter or weapons import. However, he acknowledged that he did know Abbasi.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2011.