KARACHI: A customs appellate bench of High Court of Sindh allowed an application filed by Fauji Cement seeking suspension of its judgment in a SCRA and constitutional petitions conditionally.

The SHC passed the judgment on March 10 in SCRA 548/2014 dismissing the reference. A counsel appearing for the applicant/appellant said that applicant intends to challenge the SHC judgment before Supreme Court of Pakistan, hence the department be restrained from enforcing immediate recovery.

Khalid Rajpar advocate appearing for the customs opposed the plea stating that a huge amount is due since decades against the applicant.

The bench after hearing the counsel for the contestants allowed the same in the interest of justice on condition that applicant shall deposit or furnish bank guarantee of 50 per cent of the disputed amount with the Nazir of the court, whereas the balance 50 per cent with the department directly. The bench fixed a time of ten days to complete such exercise and said that once this is done, the judgement shall stand suspended for a period of fifteen days from completion of such exercise by the Applicant.

The amount recoverable/payable by the Fauji Cement to Pakistan Customs is in billions now.