KARACHI: An appellate bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice will hear a petition regarding perfume, body spray destined for Afghanistan but detained since 2010.
Sardar Muhammad Ishaq appeared for the petitioner Nizam Baba. According to petitioner, the weight declared was 13 tones but NLC found the weight to be 31 tones and imposed a fine of rupees 300,000 upon the importer. The consignment was being shifted to a new vehicle having capacity of 35 tones when the Pakistan Customs Anti Smuggling Organization sleuths raided and detained it on ground that it was being sold in the local market. During adjudication fine was not imposed on importer but on clearing agent and transporter which was mala fide. The importer filed an appeal before the Collector Appeals who ordered release on payment of duty and taxes.
The custom authorities did not release the goods and since 2012 the SCRA filed by the department is pending. The petitioner on date of hearing raised the issue of inordinate delay and told the bench that while government suffered a revenue loss of rupees 18.75 million while the importer hailing from Afghanistan suffered a loss of 100 million.
The bench will now hear this petition on Dec 11 for a final verdict.