ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court suspended the Special Judge (Customs, Taxation, Anti-Smuggling-I), Karachi, for attaching the movable and immovable properties of the petitioners passed under Section 8 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010. A two-judge bench comprising Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi passed the order in a criminal petition against the interim order of the Sindh High Court (SHC). According to the record, an FIR No.6 of 2025 dated 24.12.2025 under Section 21 read with Sections 3, 4, 8, 20, 22 and Section XIIA and VIIA of Schedule-1 to the Act of 2010 was registered against the petitioners (Arshad Aziz Abbasi and others) wherein, it was alleged that during Tax Year 2022 to Tax Year 2024, the petitioners have evaded an amount of Rs598.447 million towards proposed liability of Sales Tax and Income Tax, which constitutes predicate offence as defined in Section 2 (XXVI) of the Act of 2010. READ MORE: Sec 109-A of Income Tax law challenged: FCC sets aside SHC CB’s May 5 order The Special Judge (Customs, Taxation and Anti-Smuggling-I), Karachi on 24-12-2025 ordered for the attachment of properties of the petitioners, while invoking the provisions of Section 8 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010. When the petitioners approached the SHC against the order of the Special Judge, Karachi, the High Court, instead of passing any order on such application or granting an ad-interim relief to the petitioners, only issued notice to the Special Prosecutor for a date to be fixed after three weeks. No reason whatsoever has been recorded to decline such ad-interim relief, which has left the petitioners remediless. The apex court noted that the order of Special Judge, Karachi of attachment under Section 8 of the Act of 2010 is otherwise final for the taxpayer whose all immovable and moveable properties, including bank accounts are attached without providing any opportunity of being heard, in consequence whereof, the entire business of the petitioners has come to an halt, whereas no other remedy whatsoever is provided under the Act of 2010 except to challenge the same by filing an appeal under section 23 of the Act of 2010. The apex court stated that since the order of the attachment passed by the Special Judge and the impugned order passed by the Single Judge of the High Court whereby it failed to exercise the lawful jurisdiction and inherent powers vested in the Court to prevent the abuse of process of law and to do complete justice by suspending the blatantly illegal order of attachment. The SC judgment said that in view of the facts and circumstances of the case, the instant case falls within the exceptions to exercise discretion under Article 185 (3) of the Constitution to avert miscarriage of justice. The apex court; therefore, allowed the appeal and suspended the operation of the order of attachment of properties of the petitioners dated 24.12.2025 passed by the Special Judge (Customs, Taxation, Anti-Crl. P. No.120/2026 9 Smuggling-I), Karachi till the final decision of Special Criminal Appeal No.01/2026 pending before the Single Judge of the High Court of Sindh at Karachi. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026