The Supreme Court was informed on Monday that an amount of Rs 54.73 billion had been embezzled in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) containers’ case and the people involved in looting the money had attained stay orders from the high court.
Rana Shamim, counsel for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), told the three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Azmat Saeed, that there were hurdles in recovering the amount as almost all of the transporters involved in the case were Afghans working under ‘bonded career’.
Justice Saeed said the FBR should have recovered the money, upon which the counsel stated that the said persons had taken stay orders from the high court.
The FBR counsel further stated that so far 11,589 show cause notices had been issued against 32,460 containers.
Justice Azmat said out of 11,589 show cause notices only 96 contained orders, which was a tiny fraction.
The counsel, in response said the process of recoveries was ongoing during which the stay order had been granted.
Justice Gulzar said even though the matter entailed high significance, it was handled in a casual manner.
He inquired if the FBR had taken against anyone. Shamim replied that action had not been taken against anyone because the matter had been taken to court.
The CJ said first orders on making recoveries had been sent to the FBR in 2011 and despite the passage of one-and-a-half year, the FBR had not complied with court orders
The bench was of the view that complete documents were sent to the FBR despite which it was unable to procure any looted money.
