Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) Masood Bashir Warraich, who conducted a raid on Lahore’s Café Aylanto, has been made an Officer on Special Duty (OSD), The News International reported.

According to reports, the development comes days after he raided the elite restaurant on MM Alam Road for allegedly allowing its customers to consume alcohol.

The raiding party, led by Warraich and Model Town assistant commissioner, had claimed recovering imported liquor from the restaurant. But interestingly, the FIR [First Information Report] did not include the restaurant owner’s name and only 13 employees — mostly waiters — were arrested.

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Warraich had earlier been accused of deliberately delaying the renewal of liquor licences of four hotels in Lahore after their managements allegedly refused to pay him 30 per cent commission from daily liquor sales.

“I am being accused of corruption just because I implemented the rules,” Warraich said while rejecting the claims, adding that before he took charge, all four hotels were selling over 100,000 liquor bottles each illegally every day which reduced to about 8,000 each after he intervened.

“Rumours about my character are being spread by the liquor mafia to discredit me.”

Meanwhile, an Excise Department official has claimed that Warraich’s transfer is not linked with last week’s raid. “The summary for the transfer of the ETO was sent three days prior to the raid,” reports quoted the official as saying.