National Media agency 92 News has reported that the National Accountability Bureau has sought documents in a more than Rs600 billion worth of scandal at Port Qasim.
The case concerns contracts of Chairman Port Qasim Authority and Collectorate Customs with QICT company, 92 News reported.
The bureau has sought the records of alleged parties’ contracts with DP world company, details of foreign investments, profits for the last eight years, general sales tax reports, and records of transfer to a foreign country.
Interior Ministry had reportedly denied security clearance of the Indian citizens sitting on the company board.
According to the article Indian citizens Rizwan Sultan, Ali Soomro, and Dewang Mankudi got access to Karachi’s Port Qasim via the QICT’s board.
NAB Karachi has formed a combined investigation team under the leadership of Salahuddin Mughal.
The article published in 92 newspapers on 17th July reported that according to the documents received by the media agency, NAB has summoned chief collector customs along with records under Section 19 of the NAB Ordinance 1999.
The details of local charges collected by QICT from 2013 to 2020 at Port Qasim and the foreign direct investment received during this time have been sought by the accountability bureau.
NAB also sought the details of the show-cause notice served to QICT and succeeding inquiries upon violation of the customs rules from the chief collector custom. Additionally, details of houses provided to custom staff by QICT on terminals 1 and 2 were also sought.
The chairman Port Qasim authority has been asked to bring the original and revised agreement documents along with him.
NAB Karachi has initiated an investigation for hiring and appointing Indian citizens on Pakistani ports without any NOC from the interior ministry.
Additionally, an investigation has been initiated against the terminal operator and Maersk Shipping for illegal funds receiving.
The problem is that these three aforementioned people turned out to be Indian citizens, and they were removed from the DP world’s board as the interior ministry didn’t clear them as Indians knowing the inner workings of Pakistani ports would endanger Pakistan’s national security, 92 news wrote.
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It is worth mentioning that Rizwan Sultan and Ali Somroo were the head of APM Terminals investment in India, and had served as the director for Gujarat pipavav port ltd, which is owned by AP Moller-Maersk Group.