How A Canadian-Pakistani Scammed The Entire Motorcycle Vendor Industry With Help Of Government Officials
Are you interested in becoming a motorcycle assembler in Pakistan? It is as easy as making yourself a burger at home; just order sauce, beef patty, wheat buns and put them together. If you’re thinking of running things on a large scale, you can get the said items on credit as well. And then you can abscond to Canada without paying anything to anyone at all. That’s exactly what a Pakistani-Canadian person did with the help of officials from Engineering Development Board (commonly known as EDB) which falls under the umbrella of Ministry of Industry and Production (MoIP) along with some help from FBR.
For Sale on Pakwheels: Used Motorcycle
If you look at the current lot of motorcycles made in Pakistan, all they do is import the engine from China (because our industry is still unable to build engines even after our yearly production is well over 1 million units). You get rest of the parts from the local vendor industry on credit. You put them together in your run of the mill assembly line, slap a cheaply made sticker, get banks to sell it in exchange of an identity card and alas! The New KhushBakht FU70 is here with new and exciting graphics.
It’s a travesty!
BR reports that such a motorcycle company owes 1.2 billion rupees to the FBR, band and vendors, in which 800 million alone is owed to a total of 65 vendors and the owner of the said motorcycle company has already fled the country to Canada as he was a Canadian national and EDB is accused of “extending extraordinary support to the said the person’s company” which was in in violation of its own Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO).
The scammed 65 vendors met with Secretary Industries and Production, Raja Hasan Abbas who is also the Head of EDB and told him how EDB officials of tariff wing played a major role in supporting the fraud for personal gains such as Land Cruisers, sending children abroad for education, Hajj-Umrah and miles worth of land.
The 65 vendors have so far threatened to set themselves on fire in the EDB offiice, as neither FBR nor EDB has even lodged an investigation into the case and the person, who has identity nor the company’s name have been revealed by Business Recorder.
FBR had provided a bonded warehouse where the motorcycle company kept the engine, the facility was to be monitored by FBR officials so duty and taxes were paid on those engines before they were hooked on to your motorcycles. And amusingly, you may be driving a motorcycle whose engine is non-custom paid but you paid in full. The company used to take out the engines from the warehouse without paying any duties and taxes through the help of FBR officials, however, when the top folks at FBR got to know about this fraud, they registered an FIR against the owner of the company who then absconded to Canada because Canadian passport.
A year has gone by since this fraud took place, while the vendors filed the cases in Lahore High Court and Supreme Court, who in turn issued and attachment ordered to EDB and IPO (Intellectual Property Organization), however, the defunct brand was already transferred to another motorcycle company.
However, when the vendors went to IPO, the organization started an inquiry to learn how the brand was transferred and allowed to produce products under the fraud brand despite being under the attachment order. It is a violation of EDB’s own SRO to allow such a brand to continue producing.
Furthermore, EDB officials also manipulated the facts to appease the motorcycle which now owns the brands though LHC issued a liquidation order for the company, but it was later challenged in Supreme Court. The new company in control of the brand has even removed everything from the fraud brand’s factory such as plant, machinery, furniture, cars, and CKD stocks.
Though FBR has said to have raided the offices of the defunct brand to confiscate files and office furniture, Mirza Nasir Baig of EDB meanwhile only issued notice to the company instead of a suspension notice when EDB SRO says that they can not issue such notices and only suspend or resume production
It is a sad tale of how this matter is handled and no matter what image Pakistanis try to show to the world so that everyone can come, do business, visit sites, the corruption that dwells in the government offices has actually affected us more than terrorism.
We tried to get the name of the brand but everyone remained tight lipped to protect the fraudsters.