LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed a federal law officer to submit a report on compliance of an order issued to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman to decide applications of a ‘whistleblower’ challenging his suspension. allegedly for disclosing a nexus between some Customs officials and smugglers.

Syed Amir Shabbir, a sepoy in Customs intelligence, posted in the FBR was suspended by the authority apparently in violation of the Public Interest Disclosure Act, 2017, which protects a complainant/witness against adverse actions, including suspension and dismissal from service.

He approached the LHC against the authorities for not taking an action on his applications exposing the customs-smugglers nexus and his subsequent suspension.

He filed a contempt of court petition, saying the respondent chairman had not obeyed the order passed by the court on his writ petition. He sought proceedings against the FBR chairman under the contempt of court charges.

On the court’s call, Assistant Attorney General Syed Ali Raza Abbas appeared before the court.

The court directed the law officer to contact the respondents and submit a report about the compliance of the order.

The hearing was adjourned till Oct 16.

Shabbir had filed a complaint to the authorities about nexus of his immediate bosses with smugglers, which allegedly led to his suspension.

With his complaint, he also furnished a list of the smugglers allegedly hand in glove with the Customs officials. He was sent on forced leave by his director, after he allegedly refused to withdraw the complaint.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2024