PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday directed the federal government to restore citizenship of 65 families, who were expelled to Afghanistan by the ruler of former state of Chitral over six decades ago.

The bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mohammad Ghazanfar accepted a writ petition filed on behalf of the said 65 families by Ameer Swat Khan. The court directed the federal interior ministry to restore citizenship of the members of the said families.

Advocate Muhibullah Tarchvi appeared for the petitioners and argued that the elders of those families were permanent residents of Gahirat area near Chitral town. He stated that the former ruler of Chitral called as “Methar-i-Chitral” got annoyed with the elders of the said families over some issue and in 1951 he ordered their expulsion from the state after which they migrated to Afghanistan.

The affected families were expelled from the area by its former ruler

He said that the ruler enjoyed vast powers and he used to expel people from the state in accordance with his wishes.

The counsel claimed that after remaining in Afghanistan for many years, those families returned to Chitral along with a large number of Afghan refugees in 1982 because of Russian invasion. He stated that later on they moved the civil court for restoration of their citizenship but their petitions were turned down and the said verdict was upheld by the district courts.

The counsel contended that later on they applied to the federal interior division, requesting restoration of their citizenship. However, he stated, the issue continued lingering on there, due to which they filed the instant petition in the high court in 2011.

Mr Tarchvi pointed out that one of the grounds cited for turning down their earlier petitions was that after their returning to Pakistan, some of them had made afghan refugee cards and had also received ration and other assistance meant for refugees. He contended when they had returned in extremely miserable conditions they were left with no other option but to receive that humanitarian assistance.

The counsel argued that according to the relevant documents those families possessed properties in the district.

STAY EXTENDED: The bench extended a stay order issued against imposition of sales tax on lawyers by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

The bench directed that the federal government should also file comments in the writ petition filed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council through its secretary Naeem Pervez, challenging the imposition of sales tax through a notification issued on August 12, 2014.

Advocates Qazi Muhammad Anwer and the bar council vice chairman Tari Khan Afridi appeared before the bench and contended that lawyers had already been paying income tax, a federal tax, as well as professional tax imposed by the provincial government since 1990.

They contended that imposition of sales tax on lawyers amounted to double taxation as they had already been paying income tax and professional tax.

They stated that through Finance Act, 2013 the provincial government had imposed 16 per cent sales tax on different services not including legal profession. Later on, they said the impugned notification was issued in 2014 and through it legal profession was included in Second Schedule, which included the professions liable to sales tax.

In September this year, the court had stayed the recovery of said sales tax by suspending the impugned notification.

On Wednesday, the bench was informed that the federal government had not filed comments in the case after which the bench extended the stay order and directed the government to file comments.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2016