KARACHI: Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar of High Court of Sindh (SHC) on Monday disposed of a suit filed by Malik Abdul Qayyum Kakar against Model Customs Collectorate, Port Qasim Authority directing the plaintiff to seek adjudication.
The bench also ordered the Pakistan Customs to decide the adjudication preferably within 45 days while keeping in view a judgment earlier against the department in an identical matter and was not challenged by the Customs department.
According to details available with Customnews.pk, the petitioner imported six prime movers, old, used, and filed separate goods declaration for each prime mover. The plaintiff maintained that each truck has an engine of 380 HP or more hence importable under the Import Policy Order 2013.
The defendant Customs, Adjudication disputed the pre-shipment inspection certificate and terming the ones submitted by the plaintiff as dubious sought a certification of engine capacity, which is awaited.
The petitioner was issued a show cause for importing an item, which is not “freely importable”, but the SHC restrained the defendants from taking action against the plaintiff.
Khawaja Shamsul-Islam advocate appearing for the plaintiff submitted that defendants have violated section 168 and 171 of the Customs Act 1969, which is a mala fide on their part hence the suit is maintainable and liable to be decreed as prayed.
Masooda Siraj advocate, counsel for Customs Adjudication in her arguments submitted that the department has already approached the pre-shipment inspection company who has not yet responded to nor confirmed the genuineness of the certifications in question. She also mentioned that as the imported violated the import policy, he was served with a show cause notice. She said that in the presence of show cause already issued plaintiff be directed to agitate their case before concerned adjudicating authority.
The bench after completion of arguments passing the judgment today ordered that since show cause has been issued to the plaintiff, plaintiff is directed to attend adjudication proceedings while authority was ordered to decide the case preferably in 45 days passing an appropriate order.