KARACHI, July 28: A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justice Qaiser Iqbal and Justice Khwaja Naveed Ahmed on Monday directed the inspector-general of police and others to ensure protection of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited premises and its installations across the province, including Karachi.

The directive was issued on a petition filed by PTCL General Manager (HR) Feroz Junejo, who submitted through his counsel that services provided by PTCL were availed not only by the government and the general public but also by defence forces. Any disruption in these services and connection system could have dangerous consequences to safety and security of the state and people.

The petition alleged that a group of employees was indulging in illegal strikes and other unfair labour practices like locking of PTCL offices in Sindh, Islamabad, Punjab, the NWFP, restraining officers from entering the premises and performing their duties, turning off electricity supply to telephone exchanges and disrupting telecommunication service.

The petitioner lodged a case (No 4A(47)/2008) with the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) against these “illegal actions”. The commission passed an order on June 9 to ensure the safety and security at PTCL premises and installations. The directives given were not implemented and some dismissed workers on July 15 announced that telephone exchanges, headquarters and other offices of PTCL across country would be locked and no one allowed entry into or exit from the offices.

The PTCL officer again approached the NIRC on July 15 and submitted a second petition seeking safety of the utility’s offices and installations. An order was issued with directives to the SSP Islamabad.

He filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court on July 17 seeking compliance by police on the orders issued by NIRC regarding the removal of protestors and agitators from PTCL premises and installations. The high court disposed of the petition, directing the respondents to ensure that no violator of law enter PTCL premises, and remove protestors and agitators from its installations throughout Punjab, particularly in Lahore. Another petition filed in the Lahore High Court was disposed of by court with a similar order issued to the respondents.

The petitioner apprehended that the respondents – Sindh chief secretary, IG Police and others – might not discharge their duty in respect of security in Karachi and other parts of the province unless directives were given by the court.

After hearing the case, the division bench directed respondents to ensure protection of PTCL premises and installations across the province, particularly in Karachi, and disposed of the matter.—PPI

CNG prices

The compressed natural gas dealers should prominently display the CNG price to fulfil the requirement of law, a division bench of the Sindh High Court observed on Monday, adds our staff reporter.

The observation came when the counsel for the CNG Dealers Association, Irfan Haroon, claimed in reply to petitioner-lawyer Javaid Ahmed Chhattari’s argument that there was an implied contract between the pumping station and the vehicle owner when the latter purchased the gas and paid for it. Mr Haroon said all the ingredients of a contract, offer, acceptance and payment, were present in the transactions at pumping stations.

Advocate Chhatari relied on Rule 13 of the of the CNG (Production and Marketing) Rules, 1992, notified by the federal ministry of petroleum. The rule says that ‘the price of CNG sold by a licensee to a consumer shall be charged in accordance with an agreement to be concluded between the licensee and the consumer’. Advocate Haroon claimed that the transaction at the pumping station was sufficient compliance with the rule. Mr Chhatari said the dealers should at least invite public objections to the prices fixed by them in order to comply with the rule.

The bench, which consisted of Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Khwaja Naveed Ahmed, remarked that in order to fulfil the minimum requirement of law, the CNG stations should display their prices so that the buyers were aware of them before they placed their orders. When the dealers’ counsel said the requirement of price display was meant for fruit vendors and sellers of other essential commodities, Justice Ahmed said fuel was no less an essential item.

The respondent association said earlier in its comments that the dealers were free to fix prices. The price announced or notified by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) together with the general sales and withholding taxes payable by them constituted the ‘input price’ at which the CNG stations were supplied gas by the Sui Northern and Southern Gas Pipeline Companies. The owners of CNG stations are ‘totally independent’ to work out their own operating and maintenance costs to fix their prices. The price charged by the stations after adding up their own expenses is the actual price.

Thus the CNG rate announced on July 1 was ‘the input price’. It envisaged an increase of Rs4.3 per kilogram but was inadvertently construed as Rs13 per kilogram. The dealers had nothing to with the erroneous announcement and it was clarified by the petroleum ministry well in time. They said the operational costs of pumping stations have gone up because of the rise in diesel/oil prices, employees’ salaries, electricity tariff, which is up by 20 per cent, and the 8 per cent fee charged by the parent companies. The dealers also pointed out that the economic co-ordination committee headed by the prime minister decided on July 15 to empower the Ogra to fix CNG consumer prices as against the ‘input price’ and readjust the gas tariff but nothing had been done to implement the decision so far.

Deputy Attorney-General Badar Alam sought time for filing comments on behalf of the petroleum ministry and the hearing was adjourned to August 6. Additional Advocate-General Shafi Mohammad Memon represented the provincial government.

Job quota

The bench, meanwhile, issued notices in a petition moved by Advocate Mahmood Anwar Baloch against omission of urban Sindh from recruitment of assistant directors in the federal narcotics ministry. The lawyer said that according to an advertisement put out by the ministry, nine assistant directors are to be recruited in grade 17. Four seats would go Punjab, two to Sindh (Rural), one each to the NWFP and Balochistan and one candidate is to be selected on open merit. He said at least one seat should have been allotted to Sindh (Urban) and the omission amounted to discrimination.

Tessori’s suit

Justice Khalid Ali Z. Qazi, meanwhile, issued notices in a suit instituted by the Tessori Trading Company (Pvt) Limited against a bank for damages amounting to Rs30 million each on account of breach of contract and financial loss and mental torture suffered by its director, Kamran Khan Tessori. The plaintiff said Kamran Tessori was forced to write a number of post-date cheques during his captivity in mid-June. The bank was duly requested not to accept the cheques but it accepted one of them on July 10.