KARACHI: A division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput on Wednesday held that respondent Astro Plastic (Pvt) Limited may continue his business as their license appears to be valid.
The bench was hearing a Special Customs Reference Application (SCRA) filed by the Collector Customs against the decision by Special Customs Appellate Tribunal which allowing an appeal by the Astro Plastic ordered restoration of their license. The license was cancelled on allegation that Astro Plastic which imported raw material on concessionary rate failed to export the manufactured goods and instead sold them in local market.
Today when the SCRA came up for hearing , the counsel for respondent company drew the attention of the court to the operative part of the order of the tribunal and said that despite specific directions, the applicant has not validated the license of the respondent on pre-text of pending SCRA before this court. The counsel submitted that due to the non-implementation of order of the tribunal entire business of the respondent came to a stand still.
The counsel for applicant Customs department at this stage said that manufacturing bond license need not be validated. He also conceded that the authority which purportedly cancelled the license do not have the authority to do so.
The bench after this statement by the counsel for applicant said that after this statement it may be held tentatively that respondent importer may continue his business.
The bench later put of hearing of the SCRA to an unspecified date.