ISLAMABAD: The Customs Appellate Tribunal on Tuesday resumed the hearing of Ayyan Ali’s petition for restoration of money seized. The case has been dismissed twice for non-prosecution after the appellant failed to take part in tribunal’s proceedings despite issuance of multiple notices.
Tribunal’s division bench, comprising Chairman Justice (r) Manzoor Hussain and Ziauddin Wazir, heard the arguments.
The bench questioned counsel Latif Khosa that how the bench can order the restoration of an appeal dismissed twice for non-prosecution.
Earlier, while hearing the previous petitions, the bench time and again issued notices to Ayyan Ali and her counsel Latif Khosa. The tribunal then imposed the said fine in the wake of ignoring tribunal’s notices.
Ayyan Ali had filed an application with the Customs Appellate Tribunal for early hearing of her restoration appeal challenging the announcement of money laundering of $500000 in March 2015.
Ayyan counsels argued that his client was innocent. The counsel submitted that the department had not sufficient evidence to prove that the black money was being smuggled. He asked tribunal to set aside the announcement made by customs court. The bench then dated in office hearing.
Ayyan Ali’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa paid fine of Rs10000 for the restoration of the case.
Earlier, the case was dismissed for non-prosecution by the appellant. Ayyan Ali’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa had filed the petition with the Customs Appellate Tribunal Islamabad challenging the decision of a lower customs court regarding the confiscation of amount seized being smuggled by AyyanAli, and the imposition of fine for trying to smuggle money out of Pakistan.
