The FIA Anti-Corruption Cell has registered a case regarding a major scandal involving the disappearance of cigarettes worth 250 million rupees from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) warehouses.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), registered on the complaint of FIA Assistant Director Muhammad Safeer Ahmed, 5 FBR officials and 3 owners of a private company have been nominated as accused. The nominated individuals from FBR include Inspector Kamran, Inspector Naved, a driver, a security guard, and a Naib Qasid, alongside two directors and a manager of the private company. Raids are currently underway to arrest the suspects.
The FIR states that in February 2024, 1,262 cartons of cigarettes were seized in Swabi and stored in an FBR warehouse in Mardan. Inspectors Kamran and Naved subsequently transferred 1,202 cartons from Mardan back to Swabi. However, upon arrival at the Swabi warehouse, 908 cartons were found missing from the trucks.
The FIR further reveals that although it was claimed 907 cartons were recovered three months later, an inspection conducted a year later showed that a total of 2,828 cartons—including those 907—were missing. Investigations revealed that FBR inspectors and staff were directly involved in the cigarette theft. The accused allegedly colluded to inflict a loss of 250 million rupees on the national exchequer, intentionally omitting logbooks and failing to install CCTV cameras at the warehouses.
