At least 21 non custom paid luxury vehicles — all belonging to the Qatari royal family — have been recovered from the parking lot of a dairy farm owned by Saifur Rehman, a former chairman of the now defunct Ehtasab Bureau, DawnNewsTV reported on Tuesday.

The farm is located in Rawat, a town near Islamabad.

The 21 vehicles were part of a batch of 50 cars imported by Qatari royals three years ago for hunting purposes. The remaining vehicles are suspected to be in the use of prominent personalities, customs sources told DawnNews.

The import duty applicable on all 50 cars had been waived for a period of three months by the PML-N government via a statutory regulatory order. However, the duty was never paid and the cars never returned to Qatar, a Customs Department source told DawnNewsTV.

The Qatar Embassy in Islamabad has confirmed the ownership of the cars.

According to the source, the Customs Department suspects that some of the vehicles had been in the use of the Sharif family.

At least one of the cars was recovered from Maryam Nawaz's son, Junaid Safdar, the source said. The driver of the vehicle, who was arrested when the car was seized, had provided the tip-off about the location of the other vehicles.

The manager of the dairy farm has asked for time to provide the legal paperwork for the cars.

Customs officers have given him three days. Failure to provide legal documentation will result in the registration of a criminal case, sources within the department said.