The import of a Bentley Mulsanne, which is alleged to have been stolen in the United Kingdom and registered here in the name of a European diplomat, is the subject of ongoing investigations that are shrouded in mystery due to diplomatic immunity, it has come to light.
The 2014 Bentley Mulsanne V8 (worth Rs41,439,322) was retrieved by Customs officials from a home in the Defence Housing Authority at the beginning of September. Jameel Shafi, a local resident who purchased the expensive car, and Naveed Bilwani, who is accused of facilitating the illegal clearance of the four-wheeler, were detained.
A special customs court that is currently hearing the case has set January 11, 2023 as the deadline for submitting the final charge sheet.
A European diplomat posted in Islamabad imported the expensive car in 2019. A quick search of the registration number on the online vehicle verification portal of the Sindh Excise Department reveals that the vehicle had the licence plate BRS-279 and was registered on May 21, 2020, in the name of "H. E. Aleksandar Borisov Parashkevov.”
Furthermore, according to official documents, Karachi customs officials had previously attempted to seize the expensive car. The foreign ministry was informed by the Bulgarian embassy that the vehicle was being used by a member of the foreign mission’s "service staff” and had not been sold to anyone, and as a result, the "customs department had no jurisdiction at all to seize, confiscate, or impound the vehicle.”
According to the legend, the plot started in 2019 when the Bulgarian ambassador to Pakistan imported the car.
On November 2019, the government of Pakistan granted Mr. Parashkevov of the Bulgarian Embassy an exemption certificate for the importation of duty-paying goods from abroad for their own use.
According to a formal letter sent by the Bulgarian Embassy to the Sindh Excise and Taxation Department on December 26, 2019, the consignment (a Bentley Mulsanne) belonged to Aleksandar Borisov Parashkevov, who was the ambassador at the time. For security reasons, the embassy requested that the Sindh government "issue cover registration number plate of the vehicle.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a "non-transferable” registration certificate for Ambassador Parashkevov’s official car with the registration number CD-09-13 on January 8, 2020.
The situation changed when the customs officials, in an interim charge sheet filed in court, allegedly gave the foreign mission a clean bill of health and charged six Pakistanis, including Jameel Shafi, Naveed Bilwani, and "unnamed” officials of the excise and taxation department, for their roles in the clearance of vehicles under diplomatic exemptions for various embassies.
According to the interim charge sheet prepared by the investigating officer, Mudassar Ali, "five letters purportedly issued by the Embassy of Bulgaria addressed to the ETO, Deputy Collector of Customs, M/s. Hapag Lloyd, all issued on 25/11/2019 ‘without bearing any signature’ had surfaced during the scrutiny of the papers/documents submitted by the clearing agent.”
The charge sheet continued by stating that it was also a well-known fact that no payments were made by the Bulgarian Embassy, either for the hiring of M/s World Ocean Center and M/s Focus Shipping Agencies’ services or for the payment of delivery order fees.
The statement read, "All these payments were made privately in cash and no evidence of payment from the Embassy could be retrieved thus far which could substantiate that the vehicle belongs to the Embassy of Bulgaria.”
Under the condition of anonymity, customs sources told Dawn that the ministry of foreign affairs would look into the situation because it involved a foreign embassy.
"Even if a foreign diplomat is discovered to have been complicit in the fraud. Given the diplomatic immunity provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Diplomatic and Consular Privileges Act, 1972, there is no chance that he or she will be charged and tried, according to a senior official.
When contacted, Ashiq Awan, the special public prosecutor for the customs department, stated that the decision regarding whether or not to charge any foreigners in the case would be made in the final charge sheet.
Although the final charge sheet has not yet been submitted, the interim charge sheet stated that the Whatsapp conversation between the suspects, Navaid and Fahad Ahmed Khan (an employee of M/s Focus Shipping Agencies who is a prosecution witness in this case), had demonstrated that "there is a plethora of vehicles smuggled” rather than just one vehicle being smuggled by abusing diplomatic rights.
In order to verify the origins of the shipments, it was stated that the investigating agency was contacting various sources. It was also stated that the scrutiny and verification of the aforementioned data was ongoing.
However, according to customs sources, further developments in the case of additional vehicles that may have been illegally imported under the guise of various embassies risk opening a fresh Pandora’s Box.
They claimed that due to diplomatic immunity, which may shield them from any type of criminal prosecution, it was very difficult to prosecute any foreign diplomat in Pakistan who was discovered to have been involved in the scam.
