KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed the Pakistan Customs’ Intelligence and Investigation to explain why a litigant’s 25,000 liters of light diesel oil was seized.
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who headed a division bench, gave these directions while hearing a petition filed by Mubasher Hassan, a partner of M/s Pearl Enterprises, who petitioned the court against the customs authorities for allegedly seizing his lawfully purchased diesel.
Ismat Mehdi, the counsel for the petitioner, submitted that her client had purchased oil from Pak Arab Refinery and others for its onward sale in Punjab and Sindh province. He has also storage facility for 50,000 liters of oil in the city’s Korangi area.
She told the judges that the petitioner is doing a legal business, however, the customs authorities raided his storage facility and seized 25,000 liters of LDO in the garb of smuggled Iranian oil. He argued that her client submitted to the authorities the invoices regarding purchase of the LDO but they seized the oil.
The petitioner prayed to the court to declare that the action taken by the authorities on October 2, 2015 by conducting raid on the petitioner’s godown and subsequent confiscation of lawfully purchased LDO is illegal. The court was further requested to order an inquiry into illegal and unwarranted raid.
