ISLAMABAD: Customs Intelligence officials on Tuesday confiscated imported luxury vehicles worth Rs250 million from a warehouse belonging to former Senator Saifur Rehman in the outskirts of Islamabad.
Officials said that they had raided the warehouse after obtaining a search warrant from a judicial magistrate and had confiscated non-custom paid vehicles, including Toyota Parado, BMW, Toyota Land Cruiser, each having a license plate of Qatar Embassy.
Officials said that during the raid, the people present in the warehouse were asked to present the documents of the vehicles but they failed to produce anything, after which the vehicles were confiscated.
Speaking to a local news outlet, Rehman said that the warehouse was only used as a storage place for the vehicles. The vehicles had been in the warehouse for the past four to five years, he added.
“The recovered vehicles belong to Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim Jaber al Thani, which have been brought for hunting in the desert and the clearance for which has been received from the Foreign Office (FO),” he said.
Qatar Embassy also issued a notification in this regard, stating that the vehicles were legally imported for hunting purposes by the former prime minister of Qatar and had been parked in the warehouses of Rehman in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
Reportedly, the vehicles were also used by members of the Sharif family, with one car being in personal use of former premier Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz.
Saifur Rehman has been given three days by Customs officials to present the documents of the impounded vehicles otherwise a case would be lodged.