KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday barred the Pakistan Customs from auctioning a vehicle till further orders.
A division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, gave this restraining order on the petition filed by Nawabzada, who moved the court seeking release of his consignment comprising a car.
It issued notice to the secretary of Ministry of Commerce and collector Model Customs Collectorate Appraisement to file their comments by September 08.
The petitioner said he had purchased a vehicle, Toyota Passo model year 2012 having chassis no KGC30-0010447 at Rs 546, 000 at an auction in Japan. Afterwards, he said, he imported the car and paid customs duty and taxes amounting to Rs 427,160 when it reached Karachi Port for its clearance.
However, he said, despite paying duty and taxes his car was not being released on the ground that it was manufactured in 2011 and as per age limit restrictions the car is older than three years and thus, cannot be imported into the country.
He told the judges that bid documents show that the car was manufactured in 2012, adding earlier the customs authorities had cleared and released Mercedes model year 2010 and vintage car which were older than the prescribed age limit.
He, therefore, pleaded with the court to direct the customs authorities to release his vehicle. The court was further requested to restrain the authorities from auctioning the vehicle till disposal of this petition.
