Toshakhana policy set aside: No auction of articles for select people, says LHC

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday declared the federal government’s policy of holding auction of toshakhana articles for a selected category of people as illegal. Allowing a petition against the government’s decision to sell toshakhana articles through auction to officers of the federal government and armed forces only, Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan directed the government to introduce a legislation to make the auction transparent and fair.

Advocate Adnan Paracha had filed the petition, saying the policy to allow the officers of the federal government and armed forces to only participate in the auction was sheer discriminatory and unlawful. He asked the court to set aside the impugned process and order the government to also allow common citizens to also participate in the auction. In an interim order passed on Nov 17, 2020, the chief justice had suspended a notification issued by the cabinet division, which states: “It has been decided to dispose of various articles available in the toshakhana of the cabinet division to the officers of federal government and the armed forces officers through auction by inviting sealed bids.”

The sealed bids were invited up to Nov 23 while the bids were scheduled to be opened on Nov 25, 2020. During Tuesday's hearing, Chief Justice Khan observed that the individual rulers had no right in the gifts received by the foreign counterparts as “they are in fact gifts from one state to another.” He remarked that such gifts needed to be preserved in a museum instead of putting them on sale at cheap prices. In this case, the government had informed the court no auction had been held for the sale of toshakhana articles during the last five years.