ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court held on Wednesday that the non-customs paid (NCP) vehicles brought by internally displaced persons in huge numbers because of the ongoing operation Zarb-i-Azb against militants could not be released under ‘superdari’ or temporary custody arrangement.

The court also regretted the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s failure to impound around 400,000 NCP vehicles being driven in different districts of the province, except Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Lakki Marwat, where the government allowed temporary registration of such vehicles.

A notification issued on Oct 3, 2014, by the KP’s home and tribal affairs department barred the NCP vehicles from plying in districts other than Bannu, D.I. Khan and Lakki Marwat, besides prohibiting their purchasing or selling.

A two-judge SC bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan had taken up two identical appeals filed by the FBR’s Directorate Intelligence and Investigation (customs), Peshawar, against the Sept 14, 2015, Peshawar High Court judgement.

The high court had ordered the release of two impounded vehicles owned by Fazal Ghani and Islam Bahadur on superdari on the grounds that these were duly registered with the Bannu police.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa, another member of the bench, asked from where these vehicles were coming to Waziristan and when told that these were smuggled from Afghanistan, he said obviously there was no manufacturing plant of vehicles in Waziristan.

The issue came into the limelight when the Daraban police station in D.I. Khan seized two Primo vehicles with fake number plates of Sindh from Abdul Wali and Abdul Habib, who later absconded. Subsequently, police conducted and inquiry into the matter and submitted a report to the Daraban judicial magistrate.

During the inquiry it was found that the vehicles were imported to Pakistan without paying customs duty and other taxes.

Fazal Ghani and Islam Bahadur submitted an application on April 8 last year for superdari, which was dismissed by the magistrate.

In its appeal before the Supreme Court, the FBR’s Directorate Intelligence and Investigation argued that the high court had failed to consider the report submitted by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) which revealed that chassis numbers of the vehicles were changed. Besides, the vehicles were smuggled without paying duties and taxes.

Nawaz Ahmed Chaudhry, representing Fazal Ghani and Islam Bahadur, argued that the policy of allowing the vehicles for temporary registration should be applicable to all the vehicles plying in the province.

Justice Ejaz Afzal wondered how the provincial law could supersede that of the federal government which had the ultimate authority in matters relating to customs duty and taxes.

Nayab Gardezi, representing the federal government, argued that in such matters the Customs Act, being a federal law, would prevail and as such the jurisdiction of customs authorities would take over all other authorities. He argued that the local police had no jurisdiction to register an NCP vehicle and allow it to be plied on roads.

He argued that if the high court judgment remained in the field, it would deprive the national exchequer of public revenue.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2016