Lawyers to move court against toll tax collection

MANSEHRA: The lawyer fraternity has resolved to move court against the resumption of toll tax collection at the Karakoram Highway in Khatain Da Gall area near here.

“We have drafted our petition to move it in the Peshawar High court’s Abbottabad Circuit Bench as toll tax collection at this point is against existing laws,” Mohammad Anwar Lughmani told reporters here on Friday. Flanked by a group of lawyers, he believed the National Highway Authority (NHA) was receiving toll tax illegally at three points which were located hardly in a 7km radius.

“The motorists and transporters are paying toll tax in Qalandarabad and Badar interchanges at Hazara Expressway and Khatain Da Galla at the KKH and all these three points are falling hardly in seven-kilometre radius.” Lughmani pointed out.

He said since the start of the Hazara Motorway, the traffic was mainly diverted to Hazara Expressway from the KKH but people of Mansehra and Abbottabad, who commute between these two cities, are paying the unjustified tax. The former speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, Shahzada Gustasib Khan also announced to move court against the collection of toll tax at Khatain Da Galla.

“The toll tax collection at this point was suspended over a decade ago after the civil society’s agitation and two people including a police inspector were killed but now the NHA has restarted collecting the toll tax which is against the law,” said Shahzada Gustasib.