KARACHI: Six clearing agents and an importer were acquitted by Special Custom’s court while show cause notice was issued against Investigating Officer (IO) for defective faulty investigations benefitting officials and Export Processing Zone investors.
The trial court was hearing a case against Kasif Imtiaz Hashmi of Faizan Enterprise, Akhtar Hashmi of Great Eastern Co, Javed Akhtar of Clearing Management Servuces, Taufique Ahmed of Maha Taufique Impex, Syed Masroor Hussain Zaidi of AKKS International, Syed Sarwar Jameel of Air Sea Alliance (clearing agents) and importer Shaukat Ali of Arqam packages & Printers.
According to case no 121of 2014, a unique case of duty and tax evasion was detected as accused dropped one digit from the tax and duty assessed at Air Freight Unit of one custom module. 113 Goods Declaration were involved and amount evaded was rupees 3600000.
Mian Umer Advocate appearing for accused in final arguments submitted that official ID of two appraisers were used in commission of crime and a clerk of customs responsible for issuing bank challan besides officials of KEPZ who issued N.O.C were with involved but IO failed to book them. The investors of KEPZ who paid alleged amount evaded were also let off the hook.
The private persons who used IDs of Appraisers were also not made accused and this conduct of IO shows that he acted with malice, mala fide and made a defective investigations to benefit real culprits involved.
The bench after hearing detailed arguments from both sides Acquitted the accused clearing agents while ordering action against IO under section 218 PPC.