LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday sought replies from the federal government and Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) about the recent increase in the petroleum prices.

A lawyer challenged the new prices through an application filed in a main petition, pending adjudication before the court since the previous government of the PML-N.

The petitioner argued that the government had increased the prices of petroleum, oil and lubricants illegally and against the Constitution in view of Article 3, read with provisions of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.

He claimed the government had increased the prices to maintain recovery of sales tax, contending that the government could not levy taxes more than 17pc but it had been imposing exorbitant taxes illegally, increasing the prices of petrol by Rs5 per litre, diesel Rs6.37, light diesel by Rs6.48 and kerosene oil by Rs3.

The petitioner alleged that Ogra, with the connivance of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Ministry of Finance had been exploiting the public as Article 3 of the Constitution did not allow any kind of exploitation, especially financial exploitation of the citizens. He prayed to the court to declare void levy of more than 17pc sales tax on petroleum products and hiked prices and order the government to decrease the prices. The court sought replies from the respondents within two weeks.

DISMISSED: The LHC dismissed a writ petition seeking compensation for the damage caused to the public and private properties during the countrywide protest by the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi.

In its dismissal order, the court observed that the petitioner was not an affected party in the case.

Abdullah Malik of Civil Society Network had filed the petition, pleading that protection of people’s life and property was the responsibility of the government and there had been a great damage to the public and private property during protests by the TLP. He argued that the government was duty-bound to compensate the losses of the citizens.

The petitioner prayed to the court to order both federal and provincial governments to determine the value of the losses and pay compensation to the citizens against the damage caused to their life and property.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2018