KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the Hyderabad’s customs official to file a proper reply to a petition against seizure of auctioned Iranian diesel.
The SHC’s division bench directed Kashif Nazir, the counsel for Pakistan Customs, to ensure filing of comments by the respondent customs official till November 3.
The petitioner submitted that the customs officers had seized 138,000 liters of smuggled Iranian diesel in February 2015. Subsequently, it was auctioned and Kepler Petroleum (Private) Limited purchased it for Rs 8.197 million. He said that later the firm sold 120,000 liters to him out which 60, 000 liters were transferred into an oil tanker with registration No.TLE-229 for its transportation to Hyderabad for sale.
He added that Pakistan Customs’ Anti-Smuggling Organisation (ASO) intercepted the oil tanker carrying 60,000 liters diesel on Mirpurkhas Road and seized it illegally even after the driver tried to convince the officials that the diesel was purchased legally at an auction.
The petitioner said the customs officer issued the driver a notice dated May 2015, telling him about disposal of the diesel through an auction. He stated that he ran pillar to post to recover the seized diesel but the respondent customs authorities were adamant to sell it.
He prayed to the court to restrain the customs officials from auctioning the seized diesel and issue directives for them to release it.
