The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has suspended 10 officials of the Customs Department, including eight appraisers, for alleged involvement in an export rebate fraud case, the Supreme Court was informed on Wednesday.
The accused, among them two principal appraisers, were nominated in FIRs registered by the Customs Intelligence and Investigation at Karachi. CBR counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada also told a Supreme Court bench that the suspended officials had already been issued notices under the Removal from Service Act 2002 and their names were on the Exit Control List.
The bench heard bail petitions of Raja Muhammad Zarat Khan, Chairman Bawan Shah Group of Companies, in the fraud case. The customs officials were nominated in the case registered against Raja Muhammad Zarat Khan and M/s Moosa Abdullah Clearing and Trading Agents by the Customs Intelligence for allegedly committing custom rebate fraud and evading customs duty.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, heard the case and dismissed all the four bail petitions filed by Raja Muhammad Zarat Khan as withdrawn by the counsel of the petitioners.
The accused officials are Asad Aleem, Irfan Ahmed, Zulfiqar Ali, Sheikh Altaf Ali Chandio, Muhammad Akram, Munawar Burni, Fazal Ahmed Abbasi, S.Najam-us-Saqib Tirmizi, Khalid Pervaiz and Abdul Rashid Qureshi.