1. ' NASIM HASAN SHAH, J.---This order will dispose of the above two petitions as the question of law arising in both of them is the same.
2. ' The question is whether the Sea Customs Act 1878 was applicable on 10-8-1982 to the Khyber Agency and Torkham Land Customs Station despite the repeal of the said Act by the Customs Act, 1969 (Act IV of 1969)? According to the petitioner, after the repeal of the Sea Customs Act, 1878 by the Act of 1969 there was no law authorising the Customs Officers either to seize the goods or to proceed against the petitioners. Hence the order of the Deputy Collector of the Central Excise & Land Customs Peshawar, Collector of Central Excise & Land Customs (Appeals), Northern Zone, Lahore and the revisional order of the Additional Secretary to the Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance, were all passed without jurisdiction and were of no legal effect.
3. The High Court has held that the Customs Officers in the Tribal Areas, notwithstanding the repeal of the Sea Customs Act, continued to exercise the power conferred upon them under the said Act in pursuance of the Tribal Areas (Application of Acts) Regulation 1965. This view is contested on the ground that these Regulations were of no avail after the repeal of the Sea Customs Act, 1878.
4. ' The question involved is one of law and of considerable general importance. Leave is granted in both these cases.
5. ' Security in each case shall be furnished in the sum of Rs, 10,000.
6. ' The appeal shall be made ready on the existing record with liberty to the parties to add further documents if any and put up for hearing before the summer vacations 1990, if possible.