KARACHI: A division bench of The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed Secretary Revenue Division as well as Chairman FBR to scrutinize all such cases, pending in this court or otherwise, through their officer, where implementation of order/ judgements in favor of the parties have not been implemented and if it is found that there is no lawful reason for not implementation of decisions, then the initiate proceedings against those found to be in dereliction of duty on a constitutional petition filed by Kashif Feroz against seizure of imported vehicle.
Landmark order’s copy received Customs Today on Dec 18, 2020, court ordered to Secretary Revenue Division and Chairman FBR shall submit compliance report through attorney general within 4 weeks, court.
The Court observed in its order that “respondents are also put on notice that in the unfortunate event that such abduction of duty persists then this court shall be constrained to initiate appropriate proceedings (inclusive of contempt) against those responsible, including those at the helm of affairs’ ‘.
Court adjourned the case for Jan 12, 2021, and directed the office to communicate copies thereof directly to the Secretary, Revenue Division, Chairman FBR, and attorney general for Pakistan and others for compliance.
Court observed in its order that “the petitioner has approached SHC seeking implementation of an order of the customs appellate tribunal dated June 01, 2020 in customs appeal K-73 of 2020 which remains implementation despite passage of over six months even though nothing has been placed on record to suggest that the aforementioned order has been suspended and or no longer hold the field.
Since learned counsel for the department is not present (and the same was the case on the last date of hearing), therefore, we had queried the learned assistant attorney general as to the reasons for not implementing the appellate order and furthermore as the why this court is being treated as the forum to execute orders rendered in the departmental hierarchy of adjudication, the learned assistant attorney general could no offer a satisfactory response”.
