Home »Agriculture and Allied » Pakistan » Saudis seize shredder plant imported by Nawaz

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  • Jun 5th, 2005
  • Comments Off on Saudis seize shredder plant imported by Nawaz
The Saudi authorities have seized a scrap shredder plant allegedly imported from Israel by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Under the Saudi laws, all Israeli items are banned in the kingdom. Documents were forged to import the plant under a deal struck by Sharif's company - Hill Metals Establishment - to be installed in Jeddah, sources said. The second hand car press machines were locally purchased for the plant, while the main metal shredder plant was to be imported.

The plant manufactured by "Seram UK Limited " had been sold to a Israeli company ten years ago and was currently lying as scrap there.

The purchase deal was signed in Jeddah on January 19 by Hussain Nawaz Sharif in his capacity as the Managing Director of Al-Azizia Steel and Hill Metals Establishment and Roy Woolcock of the Seram UK Limited, who reportedly represented the Israeli company. A letter of credit of four million Saudi Riyal was opened by the name Hill Metals Establishment in National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia for importing the plant.

Sources claimed Sharif's son Hussain also allegedly quoted the worth of plant at 40,000 US dollars to save the customs duty.

The plant was dismantled and ferried on 17 trailers from Israel via Jordan's "Zarqa Free Zone". Abu Amir was appointed Customs Clearing Agent for handling the consignment in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi authorities got suspicious of the plant and discovered that the trade labels of the Israeli company were scratched, repainted and documents were accordingly prepared to cover up the original identity of the equipment.

Sources said Hussain Nawaz met Saudi Customs authorities on April 15 along with a high ranking official to seek the release of the plant, but to no avail.

The custom authorities informed him that import of Israeli machinery was strictly prohibited in Saudi Arabia and they were processing the case for violating the laws.

The authorities had seized 3 trailers, while Nawaz was allegedly trying to bring the remaining 14 containers, lying at Al-Zarqa Free Zone, Jordan through some other routes.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2005


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