KARACHI: The Special Court of Customs Taxation and Anti-Smuggling reserved its verdict on bail pleas of three suspects involved in a case pertaining to the smuggling of antiques worth $10 million out of the country.
Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi reserved the verdict on bail applications after hearing arguments from both sides. He said that he would announce the verdict during the course of the day but it was not pronounced.
Raheel Shakeel, Muhammad Javed and Faisal, who are behind bars moved the bail applications, seeking their release.
According to the prosecution, on December 17, 2015, the Customs Preventive staff intercepted four passengers identified as Raheel Shakeel, Muhammad Javed and Irfan Ahmed and Faisal Jamal along with their collective baggage comprising 11 packages. The examination of their baggage was conducted after completion of all legal formalities but nothing objectionable was recovered from nine packages, however, examination of two wooden boxes led to recovery of very old articles of metals, statues, stone leaves, pottery statues, bengals, said to be precious metal studded with stones and iron blades etc belonging to very old age and pre-historic era and it was firmly believed that these items may fall within the specification of antiques.
Therefore, both the wooden boxes were detained for examination and expert opinion as well as valuation by the Archaelogical Department, Government of Sindh, Karachi. Subsequently, a letter No P-12/2015-JIAP dated 17-12-2015 was sent to the Director Archaeological Department, Government of Sindh at Karachi for physical examination of the objects and expert opinion with regard to the status, confirmation and valuation etc.
A team of three experts of Archeology Department visited International Departure, JIAP on 18-12-2015 and conducted examination of the said objects and finally superintendent, culture department, National Museum of Pakistan, Government of Sindh Karachi submitted its report vide letter No 20/6/2015 (Custom)-1095 dated 18-12-2015 whereby, it has been confirmed that the said items are of antiquity and belonged to the pre-historic era, worth about 10 million dollars, thus falls within the purview of Antiques Act, 1975.
