KARACHI: The judgment in a long–drawn gold smuggling case was deferred on Thursday for the second time.
The Special Court of Customs Taxation and Anti-Smuggling has set September 29 for the pronouncement of the judgment.
Earlier, Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi had reserved the verdict in the case and fixed August 29 for its judgment but it could not be announced on that date as the judge was on leave. The court office, therefore, adjourned the pronouncement of the judgment to September 17.
According to the details, in February 1996 the Anti-Smuggling Organization (ASO) of the Pakistan Customs had thwarted a bid to smuggle gold into the country. The ASO had caught a boat with 12,000 tolas of gold worth Rs 600 million. Four suspects Hussain, Dawood, Abbas and Muhammad Umer, who were on the boat, were arrested.
Subsequently, the custom authorities had registered a case against the accused persons under the relevant sections of Customs Act 1969. The accused were later released by the court on bail.
According to the official sources, it is a long-drawn smuggling case in the history of such cases as it suffered inordinate delays because of frequent transfers of investigation officers and prosecutors. Besides, the court had heard arguments four times and reserved the verdict of judgment two times but the decision could not be announced. Thus, the criminal trial re-opened again
