A two-member bench of the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal of Kaiser Shafiullah in textile quota case filed against the judgement of Sindh High Court. The bench comprising Justice Rana Baghwandas and Justice Falak Sher dismissed the appeal after hearing arguments of the counsel of both parties. Raja Qureshi represented petitioner Kaiser Shafiullah and Deputy Attorney-General Nahida Mehboob Elahi represented the Federation.
According to concise statement filed by the respondents, the petitioner made illegal and unauthorised shipments of textile products to USA against as many as 35 forged/fake visas in the name of his firm, Ghurba Textiles, during 1989 and 1990. The details of the visas forged by the petitioner were also provided in the concise statement with documentary proofs.
The forgery committed by the petitioner was detected on three different occasions in 1990 and 1991. On each occasion, the petitioner was served with show-cause notice for making illegal and unauthorised shipments of textile items against forged visas, the statement said.
The petitioner, without denying the fact that these visas were fake and forged, pleaded that he had purchased "one-time quota" through a broker and made the relevant shipments thereunder.
The petitioner not only accepted his fault regarding forged visas but also settled the matter with regard to one forged visa No OPK3528 dated 24-3-1990, appearing at S No 1 which was detected during 1990, by paying the prescribed penalty ie the surrender of equivalent quota and cash penalty equivalent to 100 percent FOB value of the consignment.
The fact that the petitioner had made illegal shipment of 483 dozen in Cat.647/48 against the visa No-OPK3528 as alleged in the Export Promotion Bureau's (EBP) show-cause notice dated 3-5-10=990 was evident from his reply which is recorded by the court, the statement said.