The News Report - KARACHI: Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday observed that there would be no need for the IMF loans if Customs theft was prevented as the Supreme Court directed Customs and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to ensure zero tolerance for evasion of tax and import duties to eradicate corruption.
Heading a five-member SC bench hearing the Karachi law and order suo moto implementation case, the CJ observed that police and law enforcement agencies were making efforts to arrest the culprits involved in criminal activities; however, it is necessary that prosecution and investigation provided sufficient evidence against the accused so that they could get conviction from the trial courts.
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| Daily Jang news clip published 28 Nov 2013 |
The court observed black money generating from tax evasion, smuggling of illegal arms and drugs were the main causes of crime in the city.The CJ said corrupt mafias were operating with the connivance of Customs and Revenue departments for tax evasion and urged eradication of corruption from the system.
“Why is corruption promoted in the system?” the CJ asked Chief Collector Customs, observing that the government may not go to the IMF for taking loans if the theft of Customs duties was stopped. “Induct fresh blood into the system and use them for betterment of the institution,” the CJ observed.
The court also directed the FBR chairman to appear in person along with record to explain why 100 percent taxes on imports was not being collected by his department.The court expressed concern over non-sharing of Customs Intelligence report about the presence of drug dens, illegal weapons and contrabands in Sohrab Goth with the Sindh government.
According to the Customs Intelligence report, smuggled weapons were being dumped at Sohrab Goth from where arms and contrabands goods were brought to all parts of the city through intercity buses. However, Chief Collector Customs Muhammad Yahya expressed his helplessness that Customs alone was unable to clean the area and if it conducts an operation to purge the area of smuggled illegal arms and contrabands, residents put up stiff resistance.
Justice Nisar took an exception to the statement of the collector and observed that it means “you will surrender if any enemy attacks you because you cannot make any resistance”.
Yahya Khan submitted that after the directions of the court, effective measures were taken to create deterrence to duty evasion; however, he admitted that the department was unable to recover 100 percent tax and import duty.
The IG Sindh filed respective progress reports before the court. The Sindh Police submitted in its report that from September 5 to date, 6,038 raids were conducted, including 426 police encounters, in which 46 criminals were killed while 8,476 criminals were arrested in murder, terrorism activities, kidnapping for ransom and possession of illegal weapons and explosive substance cases. Police said that 4,353 cases were charge-sheeted against 8,664 accused before the trial courts.
The AG Sindh also filed a progress report on the behalf of government submitting that targeted operations against criminals were being monitored by the chief minister Sindh and it had yielded positive results in curbing heinous crimes, including targeted killings, extortion, kidnapping for ransom cases and several criminals were arrested.
He mentioned that important decisions were taken by the government such as verification of arms dealers licenses, re-validation of arms licenses and mechanism to ensure delivery of mobile phone SIMs to authorised persons.
He submitted that licenses of 46 arms dealers were cancelled for their failure in furnishing details of all arms and ammunition that were sold during the last five years. He submitted that implementation of re-validation of one million arms licences in district had already started and about 100,000 application forms had been collected for further process adding that all licences will be verified through such processes. He said wherever it was found that more than four licences had been issued to an individual, they will be cancelled during the verification process.
For mechanism to ensure delivery of mobile SIMs to authorised persons, he said a joint working group had established phase-wise implementation for deployment of biometric verification mechanism with clear time line in the entire country with priority being given to Karachi for streamlining the mechanism.
Justice Nisar observed that carriers of unauthorised SIMs are as lethal as those of illegal arms. The acting prosecutor general informed the court that 3,056 absconding accused had been arrested out of the total 33,665 accused in the city. It was also informed that the Home Department had requested the Sindh High Court to establish five special courts for speedy disposal of cases against 2,120 criminals who were arrested by the police under the Sindh Arms Act.
Advocate General Sindh Khalid Javed Khan submitted that prosecutors were fearful after the recent attack on the Special Public Prosecutor Abdul Maroof, who is also a prosecutor in senior lawyer Naimat Ali Randhawa murder case. However, the suspect involved in an attack on Maroof’s house was arrested by the police. He said that it was decided that Naimat Randhawa murder trial would be shifted from Karachi. He pointed out that the government was going to appoint 200 additional investigators for speedy disposal of cases.
The FBR’s counsel raised an objection on Ramzan Bhatti’s commission report mentioning that the commission had exceeded its assigned task in the report. The court also directed the head of the commission to appear before the court on Thursday. The court asked the Customs authorities to submit a report on undeclared consignment of arms and ammunition that were lying at the port since mid 1990s.
The court issued notices to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman, Frequency Control Authority chairman and representatives of five cellular service provider companies to appear before the court and inform it about the steps taken by them to restrict the use of illegal SIMs.
The bench will resume hearing on Tuesday.
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