KARACHI:- An appellate bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Muneeb Akhtar and Justice Zafar Ali Khan on Tuesday issued notices to the respondents in about a dozen Special Custom References filed by Additional Director, Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigations, Pakistan Customs.
The applicant FBR through its AD questioned the judgments by Member (Judicial-II) of Customs Appellate Tribunal, Bench I which allowing the appeals filed by alleged smugglers of smuggled High Speed Diesel (HSD) of Iranian origin ordered release of confiscated HSD over 200,000 liters and release of impounded carriage vehicles also. According to varying individual facts of the cases, Anti Smuggling Organization (ASO) of the Pakistan Customs intercepted the oil tankers at different points and seized the oil tankers as well as HSD being smuggled from Balochistan via Karachi to interior parts of the Sindh province.
The respondents/accused in all these identical cases have taken the identical plea that HSD loaded in the vehicles was a local purchase made from different oil companies and hence cannot be dubbed as being smuggled from Iran.
Kashif Nazeer advocate appeared for the applicant department. The bench admitting the reference application ordered issuance of notices to the private respondents/accused for a date to be fixed later by the office of the court.