The Directorate of Internal Audit (Inland Revenue), Southern Region, Karachi, has disputed the veracity of the news item published in this newspaper in respect of RTO Karachi, officers of FBR and the judgement pronounced by Sindh High Court on November 12, 2010 in the constitutional petition No D-1938 of 2010, and has clarified the position as under:
- That the constitutional petition No D-1938 of 2010 was filed by the Director, Internal Audit (Inland Revenue), Southern Region, Karachi, Mushtaque Hussain Qazi, along with other co-petitioners, against the Federation of Pakistan and Hafiz Muhammad Anees, Member, FBR, Islamabad only, and the RTO Karachi had nothing to do with the petition.
--- That the constitutional petition No 1938 of 2010 was disposed of by the Sindh High Court in its judgement dated November 12, 2010, and not dismissed/rejected.
--- That the Sindh High Court in its judgement, after rejecting the contention of Masoomi, counsel of the FBR, had observed and directed as under: "Moreover, an Inquiry Officer is independent, neutral and unbiased person having no link or connection whatsoever with the incident for which he has been appointed as Inquiry Officer. He has to decide on the basis of evidence and material produced before him and not on the basis of opinions of his predecessors." "C.P. No D-1938/2008 is therefore disposed of by directing the Inquiry Officer not to take into consideration findings and reports of any of his predecessor Inquiry Officers."
--- That in presence of explicit and specific directives of the Sindh High Court, as contained in the judgement mentioned supra, for deciding the matter on the basis of evidence the FBR, which is otherwise competent to initiate any inquiry proceedings, cannot conduct any other inquiry of any sort in respect of refund issued to Grace Exports, as such an act would amount to contempt of court.
--- That last but not the least, the undersigned has filed another constitutional petition, No D-3222 of 2010, in the Sindh High Court against Federation of Pakistan through Secretary Finance, other individuals in their personal capacity viz Abrar Ahmed Khan, Member, FBR, and the Inquiry Officer, Sohail Ahmad, Chairman, FBR, Hafiz Muhammad Anees, Mmeber, FBR and Imtiaz Ahmed Barakzai, Chief Commissioner, RTO, Karachi to bring the evidence in support of allegations levelled against the undersigned and other officers before the Court, failing which it has been prayed that criminal complaint under section 182 read with section 195 of Pakistan Penal Code be lodged and action is taken. The very petition is fixed before the Court on November 30, 2010.