Karachi: A division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Chief Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro on Thursday put of hearing of 30 identical petitions pertaining to the imported off road dumper trucks till Dec 02.
Some of the petitions were filed in 2006 and every year thereafter as the Custom authorities refused to release the dumper truck on ground that the import of the dumper trucks is prohibited under the Import Policy Order.
A constitution petition CP-D 2148 of 2011 was being treated as main petition. The case was heard yesterday and was fixed for hearing today but today also on the request of both the sides by consent hearing was deferred till Dec 02.
According to petitioner Haji Abdul Ghani Bhundi he owns and managers a construction company which for its commercial operation and services continuously imports construction machinery and equipment. The petitioner imported 2 dumper trucks and filed a goods declaration under PCT heading 8705-1010 but the custom authorities refused to accept the GD initially but later assessed on higher value. The delay in release resulted in huge number of dumper truck lying at KPT, QICT, and KICT etc.
During pendency of the dispute the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Ports and Shipping intervened and ordered waiver of the demurrage and other taxes and ordered release of the dumper truck but the order could not be implemented and petitions before SHC keep increasing. The SHC clubbed all these petitions and now will hear them all on Dec 02.