LAHORE: The appellants are facing difficulties in hearing of their cases as bench 11 for Customs Appellate Tribunal is incomplete for more than two years.
The tribunal has two benches to hear the appeals against the decisions of customs adjudication. Each bench has one judicial member and one technical member. Bench-I is complete as it has Technical Member Umar Mehdi and Member Ghulam Murtaza Bhatti.
On the other hand, Bench-II has only Member Judicial Umar Arshad while the post of member technical is still vacant. Sources said that the post has not been filled for more than two years. They said requests have been sent to high ups many times but no actions were taken until today.
They said almost 10-14 appeals were heard on daily basis in the tribunal and work could be expedited by completing the number of members.
Talking to Customs Today, lawyers said that they have to wait for a long time for the decision of their appeals due to the incomplete bench that must be completed to enhance the speed of work. They said both judicial and technical members of the bench explored the cases in depth to reach on a decision and also provided support to each other to understand the case. The shortage of technical member in bench II of the customs tribunal Lahore not only put burden over other member but also creates problems for lawyers, appellants and correspondents.
Customs Today has published news regarding the vacant slot in 2014, but no action has been taken so far.
