PESHAWAR: An appellate tribunal has sought replies from two officials of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) in a contempt petition filed by a fast food outlet, claiming they raided its premises despite a stay order in its favour.

The tribunal comprising its chairman Syed Anees Shah Bukhari and member Khalid Khan fixed March 5 for next hearing of the petition filed by the outlet, Chick N Fire that stated that the tribunal had on February 24 stopped KPRA from taking any adverse action against it till March 2.

The respondents in the petition are KPRA additional collector Fazal Amin and its assistant collector Khalid Mansoor.

Advocate Saleem Shah Hoti appeared for the petitioner and stated that a dispute persisted between KPRA and the petitioner over compulsory registration with the authority as service provider.

Fast food outlet has moved appellate tribunal over raid

He said that the petitioner could not be included in the category of restaurant or hotel and was only a small outlet with no seating arrangement.

He stated that the KPRA issued a notice to the petitioner and also fined it Rs100,000 that was subsequently challenged before the tribunal.

He said that the tribunal issued a stay order in favour of the petitioner and ordered it to deposit five per cent of the fine, which the petitioner duly deposited.

Mt Hoti said that the order of the tribunal was communicated to the said two respondents on February 25, but despite that they along with three other persons raided the outlet on March 1.

He claimed that the officials forcibly snatched two mobile phones, one expenses copy, a ledger copy and other documents from the petitioner.

He claimed that the officials were shown the tribunal’s order but they disregarded the same and banned business activity of the petitioner.

He said that the officials even violated their own notice wherein they had given 10 days time to the petitioner for payment of fine as the recovery would be effective from March 3.

The counsel said that the petitioner would also file a complaint to the government and relevant authority in that regard as it was requirement of good governance.

He requested the tribunal to take action against the officials under the Code of Civil Procedure for committing contempt of the tribunal.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2021