Senate panel advises auction of seized liquor

The Senate Standing Committee on Interior on Saturday floated the idea of generating additional revenue through auction of confiscated liquor by Frontier Corps (FC) instead of current practice of destroying it. The suggestion was given by a lady member of the committee, Gulshan Saeed who referred to a statement of Interior Minister, Rehman Malik that drugs worth billions of rupees were being smuggled into Pakistan via Balochistan border.
"Why don't we generate money by auctioning such confiscated items rather than recreational drugs (heroin) and spend the money for welfare of the people", she asked. The idea was also supported by chairman of the committee Senator, Talha Mehmood and Hajji Adeel. Hajji Adeel noted that there is alcohol consumption in the country and Murree Brewery does manufacture alcohol then why not sell the seized liquor to generate money.
Mehmood said that the seized items were not limited to heroin, but other items were also included in the list of seized goods and asked the officials of the Ministry of Interior that is why these items were not being auctioned. Talking to the media, Mehmood said it was merely a discussion on auction of liquor by some members of the committee.
Saeed further said that the Interior Ministry should provided details of all the confiscated items along with their value currently in custody and how much has been destroyed during the last three years. FC official Colonel Ejaz while responding to a query said that after confiscation, contraband items were given in the custody of the local political administration.
The Senate panel, while discussing the purchases of items by FC Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last three years expressed serious concern over the procedure for the purchase and procurement of equipment in violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority's (PPRA) rules. The committee sought details of the procedure currently in practice for the purchase of various items by the FC within 15 days along with details of the tenders of the last three years as well as details of losses faced by FC during operations.
Earlier, briefing the committee, FC Colonel Ejaz said that the FC Khyber Pakhtunkhwa conducted 367 operations since 2002. Around 366 FC personnel embraced Shahadat while 1311 personnel were injured. He said that the FC has a total strength of 51094 personnel in all ranks comprising 15 units that were actively engaged in anti-smuggling operation and have confiscated a huge quantity of drugs since 2002.
He further told the committee that during anti-smuggling operations, the FC has so far recovered Hashish of 111,416.6 tons, liquor 20,682 bottles, 922.644 Kg Opium and 244.9Kg heroin. Hajji Adeel, however, expressed concern over the criteria adopted for the procurement process, adding that FC collects a huge amount of money during the tendering process in the name of registration, Shaheed fund, financial security and others and also urged the chairman of the panel to seek a report on the money collected by FC in the name of registration during the last three years.