KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday suspended the impugned order of the Customs Appellate Tribunal to release the confiscated consignment contained dried shells, plastrons and fringes of fresh water turtles of Indus River System.
While hearing an application filed by Pakistan Customs collector, the SHC division bench headed by Justice Munib Akhter and Justice Abdul Malik Gaddi directed the respondent named M/S Hongda, Trading Company to file comments on next hearing.
Earlier, the counsel for the customs stated that respondent filed a goods declaration on March 11, 2016, declaring export of consignment of dried fish maw net weight 337 kilogram packed in 143 bags and dried fish skin net weight 628 KGs, as per its declared invoice value of a $13,379,00. The said consignment was destined to Cheong House, 139-Des Voeux, West Hong Kong, China but during the examination, it was found that the consignment contained dried shells, plastrons and fringes of fresh water Turtles.
Therefore, the Customs authorities seized said goods and issued show cause notice to the respondent and after a penalty of Rs 25 million was imposed. The exporter filed an appeal before Customs Appellate Tribunal which was accepted the application and released the consignment.
The applicant asked the SHC to set aside order of the tribunal.
