The Lahore High Court (LHC) has fixed April 5, 2017 as next date for hearing of cases filed by commercial importers of tiles, steel, paper, chemical and yarn in the four new petitions against the anti-dumping duty investigations by the National Tariff Commission (NTC). It is learnt that the LHC has issued an order in this regard.
According to the order of the LHC, in cases number 6042/2017 and others, the counsel for respondent (Advocate Muhammad Azeem Daniyal) on watching brief raised the objection that the petitioners (commercial importers) are not entitled to any relief on the rule of consistency. Be that the instant petition has been filed by 14 petitioners, however, the affidavit has been filed only by one petitioner. He also stated that the power of attorney has also not been signed by all the petitioners.
The LHC order said that the advocate on behalf of local manufacturers very strongly opposed the interim order passed in the instant petition on 2.3.2017 in CM No 2/2017. He stated that the petitioners in the instant petition are all petitioners whose petitions are already pending in the court in which notices have been issued and in which arguments have been made.
Referring to the order, sources said that the said lawyer specifically referred to WP No 5240/17, 5242/17 and 5236/17 and stated that every petitioner in these cases is a petitioner in one or the other petitions filed by the importers before other benches. He stated that the court while hearing the cases did not grant any interim relief relating to these petitioners in the aforementioned writ petitions and instead heard arguments on day-to-day basis. However, the petitioners filed a fresh petition before another court without disclosing pendency of the existing petitions or the proceedings and did not disclose the fact that interim relief was not granted in their cases as the matter was argued by the counsel for the petitioners. The counsel stated that this act of the petitioners is clearly to circumvent the proceedings before the court and to take benefit of an order which they were otherwise not entitled to, Muhammad Azeem Daniyal added.
The LHC order added that the case along with connected cases is fixed for arguments on behalf of the Federation. The DAG seeks adjournment and submits that the cases may be fixed in the first week of April 2017 when this case along with connected cases will be argued on behalf of the Federation.
The LHC has re-listed cases on April 5, 2017 along with all connected cases, the court order added. It is important to mention that the LHC has not granted stay order to the commercial importers of tiles, steel, paper, chemical and yarn in the new petitions filed against the anti-dumping duty investigations by the National Tariff Commission (NTC). Three petitions bearing No (s) 6478/2017, 7096/2017 and 21600/2017 were filed by commercial importers in the LHC. The cases were taken up by Justice Ayesha A Malik of LHC.
During last hearing, dated March 10, 2017, the LHC conducted hearing in cases against National Tariff Commission, wherein the notices of initiation, preliminary determination and final determination regarding anti-dumping duty on dumped imports of various goods were under challenge. The importers' lawyer requested for transfer of the cases to any other bench or constitute larger bench. The judge asked him to state reasons why these cases should be transferred to any other bench at such stage of the case when arguments of the petitioners have been completed. However this case has been adjourned to April 5, 2017 and the petitioners' lawyer has been provided an opportunity to present his viewpoint over objections raised by the lawyer of the domestic industry.
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