The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) has expressed serious displeasure over the Director General (DG) of Pakistan Customs’ Intelligence Wing, Faiz Ahmad, for not complying with its orders.
The development emerged from the hearing of a case filed by a citizen whose Non-Custom Paid (NCP) car was seized by Customs and hasn’t been released despite clearing taxes and duties.
During the hearing, Justice Qazi Faez Isa said that the car has been gathering dust in a Customs warehouse for the last five years. He asked if Customs would pay the damages when something goes wrong with the car.
Justice Faez also questioned the official if he’s above the law. He asked the official to explain why the car hasn’t been released despite rulings from three courts in the favor of the citizen.
The official stated that this is a unique case of NCP. Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar intervened and asked how is it a unique case when the citizen has cleared all taxes and duties.
The apex court rejected Customs’ appeal to quash the case. It also imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 on Customs for wasting the precious time of the courts by filing frivolous petitions.
A fine of just 50,000! The fine should be in line with the damage caused, how much do you think the citizen paid for his transportation needs for those 5 years of wrongful withholding of his car. The fine should be at least 1 million and paid to the citizen, and departmental action should be taken against the officer for not following due process and causing loss to national exchequer. That would be true justice.
The man got caught breaking the law. He gets off by paying what he should have paid in the first place. If he wasn’t caught, he’d still be enjoying driving his NCP vehicle.
So the point here is that a person who broke the law by buying a NCP vehicle, gets caught and then all he has to do is to pay the duty and taxes and he’s in the clear?
No doubt the only issue is that he got caught.
Are govt officials are above the law