The Excise Taxation Officer (ETO) who raided Café Aylanto in Lahore has been made OSD (Officer on Special Duty).
Masood Bashir Warraich received the notification on Wednesday, days after he conducted a raid at the hotel and recovered 12 bottles of liquor from its premises.
While there is a notion that the transfer order is connected to the raid, the reality might be different.
Sources inside the Excise Department revealed that Warraich was a corrupt officer who had remained on the post due to his influential contacts.
An official, on the condition of anonymity, said that Masood used to take bribes from hotels for allowing alcohol sale.
There was a serious crisis in the department in July this year when Warraich ‘deliberately’ delayed renewal of liquor licenses of the four hotels in Lahore after the hotel managements allegedly refused to pay him 30 percent commission from the daily liquor sales.
Moreover, the Commissioner Lahore, who authorized the raid, was angry with him for he did not nominate hotel owners who were found consuming alcohol. Most of the people arrested during the raid were waiters who had nothing to do with the confiscated material.
Furthermore, the tax collection during his tenure remained shockingly low. The total collected tax during the last two months was only 10 percent to the same period the previous year.
Via: Pakistan Today
