KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday put off an application of a Chinese citizen seeking return of Rs 50,000 surety he had furnished to seek protective bail in a case pertaining to the smuggling of body part of freshwater turtles to Hong Kong.
A single bench of the SHC adjourned the application to a date to be fixed later by the court office. The case could not be taken up because of the suspension of legal work over the demise of former SHC Chief Justice.
According to the details, the customs authorities had foiled a bid to smuggle body parts of freshwater turtles, protected species, to Hong Kong. M/s Hongda Trading Company tried to smuggle 4,342 dried turtles weighing about 1.90 tonnes, under the garb of dried fish maw and dried fish skin. Total value of the turtle parts was estimated at Rs 616.564 million.
The Model Customs Collectorate, Exports had registered the FIR against the firm’s proprietor Ali Ahmed Soomro, and Muhammad Rizwan and partner Chinese citizen, Yingquan Pang.
The SHC had granted protective bail to the Chinese citizen against surety of Rs 50000 when he approached it against non-bailable warrants issued by the customs court for his arrest.
In the application, he requested the court to return the surety since it was no more required as he had surrendered before the trial court and pleaded guilty to his role in the offence.
