KARACHI: A bench of Islamabad High Court comprising Justice Babar Sattar disposed of a writ petition filed by one Imran Ali seeking implementation of order passed by Custom Appellate Tribunal.
As the proceedings commenced, Touqeer Akram Advocate representing the petitioner informed the court that order of the Custom Appellate Tribunal had been complied with pursuant to hearing dated 26.2.2024 in which Member Customs has informed the bench that he has enquired about un-implementation orders passed by Tribunals and found that there are number of orders of Tribunal against which no stay orders had been issued. He under took to issue written instructions to all the field officers to filed references within the limitation period and obtain a stay and where no stay is existing, order of the Tribunal be complied with.
The bench in it s order appreciated the undertaking by the Member (Customs) FBR adding that the orders of the tribunals are equally applicable to the private parties and public officials unless the order is suspended by the High Court.
“The orders of the tribunal are binding on Custom Officials who cannot choose to sit in judgment over such order or defy the same on the basis that the Custom Authorities intend to file a reference and expect that a stay order will be issued by the High Court in such reference. The Court hopes that the widespread practice of refusing to abide by the orders of the Tribunal will come to an end once appropriate instructions are issued by the FBR to the field officers as under taken by the Member (Customs) FBR” the bench ruled while disposing of the petition as having served its purpose.