LHC orders Customs officials to return gold, dollars seized from passenger

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday ordered Pakistan Customs to return dollars and gold seized from a passenger, heading to a foreign country, in their original form, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

A two-member bench, headed by Malik Javed Iqbal Vains, released the verdict spreading over nine pages.

In its decision, the court said that change in the form of an item in the possession of a state did not take away from its owner the right of ownership. “A state cannot continue to hold any item illegally,” read the verdict, adding that citizens had been guaranteed the protection of their properties under Article 24 of the constitution.

“Nobody can be deprived of his or her property without a court’s verdict,” the LHC said, adding that the court declared Pakistan Customs’ officials’ old order of refund of Rs5.8 million ‘illegal’.

It was further written in the verdict that the Customs officials also failed to give any proof of the auction of gold through legal means.

The court went on to say that the determination of the price of gold seized was not a substitute for its return.

The court also fined the citizen Rs100,000.

Abbas Ali, the petitioner, in his plea had said that despite acquittal by the Supreme Court, Customs officials had not returned to him gold and dollars, which they had confiscated.

He further said that Customs officials had melted the gold and turned it into a brick. “And now the department, instead of returning the gold, wants to give me cash.”

Speaking on the occasion, Customs’ lawyer said that gold had been transferred to the State Bank of Pakistan, and that the citizen could only be given the amount received after the sale of the item.