LHC moved against hike in POL prices

LAHORE: A petition has been moved in the Lahore High Court against the recent increase in the prices of the petroleum products.

The petitioner-counsel said that the government’s recent decision to increase POL prices was unjustified and against the law. The counsel said the prices had already been so high and the recent decision to increase more prices was taken at the moment when there was no sign of increase in prices in the international markets.

The government, the lawyer said, had been increasing prices every month. The lawyer said the government had already been charging sales tax on petroleum products and no permission was sought from the federal cabinet to increase the prices as well as the tax on the petroleum products.

High inflation and price hike had already made the peoples life difficult and they had lost their purchasing power, the counsel said. He asked the court to set aside the recent decision of the government to increase the POL products.

Model Town case adjourned: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of Model Town case by May 4. The court adjourned the hearing after partial arguments on the statement of Jawad Hamid.

Earlier, the court had indicted 116 police officials on a private complaint filed by Idara Minhajul Quran for seeking their trial on charges of killing its workers during 2014 Model Town incident. The court had in 2017 partially admitted the complaint against 125 officials of police and district government while rejecting it to the extent of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and 10 others, including federal and provincial ministers.

Appeals of the accused officials summoned by the trial court were pending with the Lahore High Court. The 12 political leaders against whom the ATC had rejected the complaint are Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, MNA Hamza Shahbaz, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique, Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif, former information minister Pervaiz Rashid, State Minister Abid Sher Ali, former interior minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan, then personal secretary to chief minister Syed Tauqir Shah, home minister Azam Suleman and then Lahore commissioner Rashid Mahmood Langrial.