ISLAMABAD: The Customs Appellate Tribunal dated in office hearing arguments on Ayyan Ali’s petition for restoration of confiscated money that 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 of Chairman Justice (r) Manzoor Hussain and Ziauddin Wazir, heard the arguments. The bench questioned the Counsel Latif Khosa that how the bench can order restoration of an appeal dismissed twice for non-prosecution.
Earlier while hearing the previous petitions, the bench had time and again served notices on Ayyan Ali and her counsel Latif Khosa. The tribunal then had imposed the said fine in the wake of ignoring tribunal’s notices.
Ayyan counsels argued that his client was innocent. The counsels submitted that the department had not sufficient evidence to prove that black money was being smuggled. He asked tribunal to set aside the announcement made by customs court. The bench then dated in office hearing.
Earlier, the case was dismissed for non-prosecution by the appellant.
Ayyan Ali’s Counsel Sardar Latif Khosa had filed the petition at Customs Appellate Tribunal Islamabad challenging the decision of a lower customs court regarding the confiscation of $500,000 being smuggled by Ayyan Ali and imposition of fine for trying to smuggle money out of Pakistan.
Through the petition, Ayyan’s Counsel challenged the said decision announced by a Rawalpindi customs court. The court had indicted Ayyan for trying to smuggle $500,000 out of the Pakistan. The amount was confiscated by customs authorities and later customs adjudication found her guilty of smuggling said amount out of Pakistan.
The customs court upheld the departmental decision on confiscation of amount being tried to smuggle and also added fine to earlier seized amount.
