KARACHI: M/S Digicom Trading Company on Monday withdrawn its five constitutional petitions from the Sindh High Court (SHC) against lodging first information reports and show cause notices issued by customs authorities alleging that it (QMobile) is involveed in smuggling of thousands of mobile phones in the garb of LED lights.
Two separate two-member benches, headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar heard the petitions.
During the hearing, counsel for the Q Mobile Company informed the court that its counsel directed him to withdraw all petitions from the SHC. Therefore, the court disposed of these petitions as withdrawn.
Earlier, the petitioner filed petitions and submitted that the mobile phones were not smuggled by mis-declaration but the company had imported LED lights from Dubai and cleared its containers through Green Channel of customs. He submitted that company got cleared its consignment after fulfilling all custom duties and unaware about the changing of consignment.
He had submitted that proper inquiry of the incident should be conducted and requested the court to restrain the customs authorities from taking any coercive action against the petitioner. He also sought detailed inquiry of the incident and requested the court to quash the FIR registered by the customs authorities under custom and sales tax laws.
It is pertinent to mention that customs authorities had claimed seizure of a container which had more than 63,000 mobile phones and over 500 tablets worth Rs.285 million in the market.
According to Customs authorities, a container was seized at Saddar area after receiving credible information that some importers were misusing the facility of Green Channel under paperless Web Based One Customs (WeBOC) system and getting their goods cleared from Karachi by declaring them LED lights and bulbs in their description.
Customs had registered a case against M/s Digicom accusing it of smuggling electronic items mobile phones through mis-declaration.