KARACHI: Hearing six identical petitions filed by Licensed Custom Agents including Humayu Sultan and others, a custom appellate bench of High Court of Sindh allowed the same making strict observations deprecating extreme penal action of suspending licenses of the petitioner Custom Agents.
The petitioners were represented by Dr. Mohammad Fargooh Naseem, Dr. Shahab Imam, Tanzeel Farooqui and others while respondents were represented by Sardar Zafar Hussain Advocate. The federal government was represented by Deputy Attorney General Kashif Nazeer.
The counsel for petitioners contended that the licenses were suspended without any notice or assigning any reasons which is mandatory for an immediate suspension of a license without notice.
The counsel for respondents and custom officer present contended that at this moment they are not in possession of impugned order as it was a computer generated order.
The bench noted that Show Cause Notices were issued after suspension of licenses and further proceedings may not be finalized. The bench noted that there was no any immediate requirement of suspension of licenses of the Petitioners in as much as the allegations appears to be vague and are yet to be established on the basis of the available record as the entire case of the respondent Department rests on some Whatsapp message exchanged allegedly between the Petitioners as well as a Custom Appraiser through one outsider Ayaz Ali. In these circumstances, we do not see any justifiable reason to sustain the suspension of petitioners’ licence pending final adjudication of the show cause notices.
The bench with above observations disposed of the petitions allowing the same.
Full text of Order to following:
Suspension order custom agent licenses 02-11-2025