LAHORE: Customs Appellate Tribunal formulated a special bench-I comprising Manzoor Malik as judicial member and Khawaja Omer Mehdi as Technical member for hearing of cases in Lahore. The bench will start working from September 26.
Customs Appellate Tribunal could not hear any case during ongoing week of September, as contract period of Judicial Member Omar Arshad Hakeem has expired.
Numbers of cases were scheduled for hearing was adjourned until next date of hearing after non-availability of the member. Judicial Member Omar Arshad Hakeem had heard cases at special bench-II.
Furthermore, bench-I of the Customs Tribunal wass already not functional due to the non-availability of judicial member, as last member Ghulam Murtaza Bhatti was promoted to chairman of the tribunal.
After the appointment of Ghulam Murtaza Bhatti as chairman, the tribunal established special bench-II comprising Judicial Member Omar Arshad Hakeem and Technical Member Imran Tariq for hearing of cases.
After the completion of working tenure of Omar Arshad Hakeem, special bench-II has become non-functional because one member cannot conduct hearing of the cases.
It is pertinent to mention here that Manzoor Malik is retired justice of Peshawar High Court.