- By way of background, a FIR was lodged on 27.07.2021 by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Corporate Crime Circle at Karachi on the complaint filed by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan in relation to enquiry No. 16/2018.
- During the course of inquiry by the FIA, it was recorded that a quantity of 123,913 Metric Tons (MT) of imported Urea was stored at TCP’s Landhi godown during the period September 2008 till December 2009. Thereafter, a Committee was formed to reconcile the stock at TCP’s Landhi godown. The report submitted by the Committee on 06.03.2010 reflected a shortage of 11,416 bags of Urea from TCP’s Landhi godown, with the worth of the said Urea estimated at Rs.15,411,600/-.
- During the FIA inquiry, it was alleged that the accused in the FIR—namely Accused Bashir Ahmed (Ex GM Dispatch Operation Division, TCP), Accused Munawar Akhtar Islam (Ex Director Commercial-II, TCP), and Accused Muhammad Sadiq (Ex Manager Dispatch Operation Division, TCP)—in connivance with the owners of the transport carriage companies, were jointly found responsible for the loss caused to TCP and the Government of Pakistan’s exchequer. It was alleged that they misused their official position by awarding the quota to transporters without following internal procedures and in violation of the Public Procurement Rules, 2004, illegally assigning the work of shifting Urea from the port to TCP’s Landhi godown to selected transporters against the rates approved for transportation of Wheat Operation in 2007-2008.
- Moreover, Accused Bashir Ahmed and Accused Muhammad Sadiq, being in charge of TCP’s Dispatch Operation Division, fraudulently processed and passed the bills of transporters without proper scrutiny and without deduction of the shortage claim amount for torn/damaged bags delivered by these transporters at TCP’s Landhi godown.
- Accused Muhammad Sadiq, for illegal personal gain, had illegally awarded the transport quota to twelve (12) contractors for the transportation of 123,920.500 MT imported Urea from the port to TCP’s Landhi godown without following a transparent procedure. This benefitted the transporters and caused a loss to the Government of Pakistan’s exchequer and TCP. It was also alleged that the In-charge of TCP’s Landhi godown reported regarding torn bags, but Accused Muhammad Sadiq and Accused Bashir illegally approved the bills of the transporters amounting to Rs.54,463,244/- without deduction of damages/short cargo/torn bags, causing significant loss to the Government’s exchequer.
- It was then alleged that officials of TCP deliberately obeyed the illegal directions of Accused Munawar Akhtar Islam for unloading the urea bags at TCP’s Landhi godown without weight verification and approval from the competent authority.
- Nonetheless, one of the accused engaged Barrister Junaid Ahmed and his team, and on 30.07.2021, the Special Court Anti-Corruption Judge granted ad-interim bail to our Client against the surety of PKR 0.2 million.
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