LAHORE - The Interior Ministry hindered the registration of case against officials of National Fertiliser Marketing Limited (NFML) allegedly involved in embezzlement of millions of rupees established in inquiry held by FIA on the direction of Supreme Court of Pakistan, sources in the Ministry confided to TheNation on Tuesday.

They said that FIA had completed its inquiry into the issue a year back and forwarded its Confidential Final Report (CFR), which is considered in legal circles as good as FIR to the Ministry. After passage of a year, the Ministry in a letter written to FIA Punjab chapter not only hindered the action against the accused but also raised objection on inquiry process and asked FIA investigators to cover more aspects of the case. Sources in the Interior Ministry said that investigators had already covered those aspects which were asked to re-check. The FIA was asked to re-check the case whether or not it was prejudice; also to check the quota of fertiliser given to parliamentarians; loss caused to national exchequer and sale proceeding. The sources in FIA said that NFML officials with connivance of renowned transport company misappropriated the fertiliser when it was being transported to its destination from Karachi and Gawadar and also claimed transportation charges.
The sources claimed that modus operandi of the accused was to issue the bags in the fake names of dealers instead of bona-fide ones against low price and loading and unloading charges were also received from government exchequer fraudulently. DCO Gujranwala in a report sent to FIA Punjab Lahore Director revealed that NFML Eminabad and Gujranwala, were supplying imported urea of worth millions of rupees to fake dealers.
It is to be recalled that an inquiry in NFML wherein Rs 300billion were embezzled last year, was yet to be completed when the above-mentioned scam surfaced in Gujranwala Division. The sources said that DCO Gujranwala pointed out the massive irregularities in distribution of imported urea in districts of Gujranwala division. The DCO was informed by Agriculture Department. The detailed report of DCO made eye-opening revelations and stated that only within 16 days from December 19, 2011 to January 6, 2012, 1, 360 tons urea was dispatched to 84 untraceable dealers in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Narowal, Hafizabad and Mandi Bahauddin districts. Urea was supplied to a total of 191 dealers, out of whom; 107 were notified and traceable while 84 dealers were untraceable. The report further read out that total quantity dispatched to the dealers was 2,840 tons; out of which 1480 tons was supervised and traceable while 1360 was dispatched to undisclosed locations.
As per details, major chunk of the embezzled urea was dispatched in Gujranwala district i.e. 1980 tons; out of which, 975 tons was traceable and 1005 tons was dispatched to untraceable dealers. Similarly minimum quantity of 30 tons was dispatched to Narowal district; out of which, 30 tons was supervised while 20 tons was dispatched to untraceable dealers.