PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has ordered the Customs department to fully implement the Export Policy Order, 2022, and stop export of gur (jaggery) to Afghanistan.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr Khursheed Iqbal put on notice the relevant collectors of the department, directing them to file comments within a fortnight to a petition of a private company. The company has challenged non-granting of permission to it for exporting jiggery to Afghanistan.

The petitioner, Muttahida Enterprises, claimed that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had been allowing exporters from Punjab to export the said product but the same facility had not been allowed to it on the ground that jiggery was a prohibited item in terms of Export Policy Order, 2022.

The petitioner has requested the high court to direct the respondents including the collector Customs (appraisement) and collector Customs (enforcement) to allow it to export the product to Afghanistan.

Bench seeks comments from collectors within fortnight

The petitioner has also sought interim relief, requesting that till final disposal of its petition it may be allowed to export the product.

Advocate Aimal Khan Barkandi appeared for the petitioner and stated that his client was a private limited company registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and FBR as exporter.

He said that under the Export Policy, 2020, at serial No.10 of the schedule, sugar was not allowed to be exported, however, there was no ban on export of jiggery but FBR did not allow the petitioner to export it to Afghanistan despite the fact that other exporters were allowed to export the same.

The counsel stated that the petitioner had challenged the said act of the FBR, which was decided in its favour by the high court in April 2022.

He said that another petition of the petitioner filed last year was dismissed in May 2023 on the grounds that under the Export Policy Order, 2022, jiggery was a restricted item and the earlier judgment of the court delivered in April 2022 in favour of the petitioner was inapplicable as that was passed prior to the enforcement of Export Policy, 2022.

He argued that the act of the respondent was discriminatory as they allowed other exporters to export the item to Afghanistan, but did not give the same concession to his petitioner.

Mr Barkandi contended that allowing one exporter to export an item while not allowing another was tantamount to introducing unfair competition and monopoly in the market.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2023