PESHAWAR, Oct 29: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday put the collector customs, Karachi, on notice in Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Kahn Sherpao’s petition seeking exemption from payment of Rs10 million as duty levied on import of a luxury car.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi and Justice Fazlur Rehman Khan fixed Jan 10, 2007 for next hearing. The case has been lingering on for more than four years. Mr Sherpao had imported a Mercedes in 1996 when he was chief minister of the Frontier province.
The court has already admitted the petition for full hearing and stayed recovery of the amount from the petitioner by suspending the impugned order issued by the collector customs in 1999.
Zafar Abbas Zaidi appeared for the petitioner while deputy attorney-general Salahuddin Khan represented the federal government.
The court observed that although the collector customs had filed comments, he had not been represented in the case. It decided to put the collector on notice.
The petitioner contended that he was not the only person who had imported a luxurious car, adding that several other dignitaries had also availed of the facility. He pointed out that an Act had been passed by parliament exempting certain dignitaries from payment of customs duty on import of vehicles. Mr Sherpao said he imported the car after that Act and thus was exempted from the custom duty.
The respondents, including the cabinet division and the Central Board of Revenue, said that Mr Sherpao had not produced the exemption certificate. They said that according to a presidential order only the president, prime minister, governors and chiefs of the three armed forces were exempted from payment of the customs duty on import of a vehicle of up to 3200CC. The CBR said chief ministers were not mentioned in the order.
The court was informed that when this was pointed to Mr Sherpao, he sought time for production of an exemption certificate but failed to produce one following which the government issued him a notice for payment of the duty.