ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has concluded disciplinary proceedings against six officers of Pakistan Customs Service under the Civil Servants (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules, 2020, awarding minor penalties for charges including inefficiency, misconduct, and supervisory negligence, while corruption allegations were not substantiated in any of the cases; the officers have also been penalised with a six-month suspension of their performance allowance in light of FBR’s Performance Allowance Guidelines, 2015
Grade-17 Principal Appraiser Fazal Karim of Collectorate of Customs, Airports, Karachi was found guilty of inefficient examination and assessment in the clearance of a consignment involving “New Samsung Galaxy Tablets A7” and was awarded the penalty of withholding of annual increment for three years without cumulative effect; the inquiry officer found no evidence of corruption but confirmed negligence resulting in a recoverable revenue loss of Rs.9.7 million; he has been reinstated into service with the suspension period treated as leave, and his performance allowance suspended for six months
Grade-17 Senior Preventive Officer Syed Hassan Mehdi, from the same collectorate and linked to the same GD case, was also found guilty of inefficiency and misconduct; he received the same penalty of three-year increment withholding, was reinstated into government service after suspension, and his performance allowance was stopped for six months
Grade-17 Principal Appraiser Saqib Nazir Khan, formerly posted at Collectorate of Customs Appraisement (West), Lahore and currently serving at Central Appraising Unit, Karachi, was penalised with a minor penalty of censure for supervisory inefficiency in two out of five GDs; charges of corruption and misconduct were not proven during inquiry proceedings, and the officer did not avail the opportunity of personal hearing; his performance allowance has been suspended for six months
Grade-16 Inspector Ali Zaman, Collectorate of Customs, Airports, Karachi, was penalised with the same three-year increment withholding without cumulative effect for inaccurate examination and assessment in the same Samsung Tablets GD; corruption was not established but negligence was confirmed in the inquiry report; he was reinstated, his suspension treated as leave, and performance allowance stopped for six months
Grade-16 Appraising Officer Maira Gulraiz, posted at Collectorate of Customs Appraisement (East), Karachi, was awarded the penalty of one-year increment withholding for misconduct after inquiry found her guilty of misbehaving with the Deputy Collector (Law); though she denied the charge, she admitted exchange of harsh words during personal hearing; her previous record includes a penalty in February 2023 for serious irregularities; her performance allowance has also been withheld for six months
All officers penalised in the “Samsung A7 GD clearance” case – Fazal Karim, Syed Hassan Mehdi and Ali Zaman – were found negligent in their respective roles but cleared of corruption, with the financial loss of Rs.9.7 million subsequently recovered from the importer after reassessment; the officers have the right to appeal the decisions within 30 days under the Civil Servants (Appeals) Rules, 1977
—
