KARACHI: A division bench of High Court of Sindh comprising Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan on Monday adjourned hearing of three identical Special Customs Reference Applications (SCRAs) directing the counsel for applicant/appellants to come prepared and makes final arguments.
The bench was hearing applications filed by Abdul Habib, Tanveer A Khan and Muhammad Khalid, claimants of different quantity of Black Tea bags weighing over 25000 kilograms. The tea was alleged to be from Afghan Transit Trade.
According to details, Customs officials in three different raids at the stores/gowdowns owned by applicants/appellants seized the tea bags on ground that these are smuggled and non-duty paid. According to Customs, applicants/appellants failed in producing documents showing that tea bags are lawfully imported or purchased from local market.
The Customs Appellate Tribunal has also dismissed the plea of the alleged importers against which instant SCRAs were filed.
Today when the applications came up for hearing, the bench noted that counsel for applicants was not prepared and thus unable to advance arguments. The bench directed the counsel to appear prepared on next date of hearing to be fixed by the office of the court.