Clearing and forwarding agents and car showroom owners in connivance with taxi drivers can make it possible to import vehicles on forged and fake documents, however, a parliamentarian had to pay the price for the illegal activity in the shape of damage to his image and repute.
A gang comprising clearing and forwarding agents, showroom owners and taxi drivers was found involved in the import of vehicles through the forged documents of various individuals, including a senator. The mode being used by the criminals came to light during an investigation conducted by FIA into a particular case pertaining to the import of a car by an unknown man on the forged passport and identity card carrying picture of Senator Azam Khan Swati.
Per details, Senator Azam Swati of the JUI-F on July 22, 2011 moved a privilege motion in the Senate in which he inter alia stated that someone had used his photo and obtained a forged passport and ID card for importing a car. According to the preliminary FIA investigation report, the gang bought passports from expatriate Pakistanis and used their names to import cars on forged documents.
In connection with Swati’s case, the FIA interrogated Iqbal Feroz of Tawakkal Enterprises Clearing and Forwarding Agents at Karachi, who stated that one of his former employees, Muhammad Ramzan, delivered some documents, including export registration and a Pakistani passport with Senator Swati’s photograph for a vehicle’s clearance. He said that the matter was brought to the notice of an appraiser of Pakistan Customs, who later communicated the development to the senator.
The FIA has also approached Wahid, an agent Ayaz and a taxi driver, who got the passport from a person at Karachi airport for investigation. The tampered passport used in Swati’s case was taken from a person who had come from Dubai, the FIA report said. FIA investigators believed that the main culprit in Senator Swati’s case was the owner of KIRN Motors, located at 16 Fatima Jinnah Colony, MA Jinnah Road, Karachi. The vehicle is currently impounded.
In light of the investigation report, the licence of the clearing agent M/s A-One Forward Agencies has been suspended. An interesting aspect of the case is that Azam Amin, resident of Gujrat and having CNIC number 34202-4772262-3, whose name was manifested in the original IGM for import of the car, had never got a passport issued in his name.
It appeared that he was not involved in the case and his name and data was retrieved from somewhere else, the FIA report said. The FIA would take around 15 more days to complete the investigation, sources said.
