KARACHI: A Customs appellate bench of High Court of Sindh on Tuesday asked the Collector Customs to satisfy the court about the reason for holding consignments of fabric on ground that it was of Indian origin.
The bench was hearing a constitution petition filed by Horizon Enterprises and five other importers who imported fabric of China origin from Dubai. Today when the petition came up for hearing, counsel for Custom officials submitted a list of manufacturers taken from a website and stated that no manufacturer exists in China of the held goods/consignments. The bench asked that how the information from a foreign website could be treated as authentic.
Ghulam ullah Sheikh advocate of Franklin Law Associates appearing for the petitioner/importers submitted that the ‘Certificates of origin ‘ from manufacturer (China) as well as supplier from UAE has been have been submitted to the custom authorities but the consignments were held on the order of the Chief Collector Customs. The counsel prayed to the court to declare the action by the Collector as illegal and to order release of the consignments.
The bench after hearing the sides deferred further hearing till Dec 02 to satisfy the court about their claim of held goods of being made in India or to release the consignments.