KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered conditional release of seven more concrete transit mixer trucks. The customs officials Umar Shafeeq and Imran Afzal told the court that following its order, 68 vehicles have been released and there are still 17 vehicles to be dealt with. Imran stated that 10 vehicle cannot be released as they were imported in violation of the Import Policy Order 2013. However, seven vehicles were withheld on account of non-availability of certain documents.
Justice Munib Akhtar, who headed a division bench, directed the customs officials to provide a list of details of the required documents to the petitioners.
It directed the petitioner that once such a list is provided to them, they would submit documents within three days. Afterwards, the court ordered that the customs officials would examine the material provided by the petitioners and release their vehicles in line with its earlier order.
During previous hearing, the customs officials told the judges that following the court order, the importers were told to deposit the differential amount of duty and taxes with Nazir of the court who would issue certificate for release of the vehicles. As and when they would submit relevant certificate 68 out of 85 vehicles would be cleared and released at first.
The bench had taken up a contempt of court application filed by Haji Ihsan Ullah and others, who requested the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the customs officials Umar Shafeeq and Imran Afzal for flouting its order regarding release of their vehicles.
Advocate Sarfraz Ali Metlo and Dilkhurram Shaheen submitted that his clients had imported 85 old and used concrete transit mixer trucks six months ago but they were not being released by the customs department on the ground that the importers mis-declared the value of their vehicles and violated the Import Policy Order 2013.
They said that the Court earlier on September 11 ordered provisional release of the vehicles with direction for the petitioners to deposit differential amount of duty and taxes with Nazir of the Court. However, the Court’s orders were not obeyed.
