Peshawar News

PHC seeks comments from LG on raise in bus stand taxes Monday, July 21, 2008 Ghulam Dastageer PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has sought comments from the provincial secretary for Local Government (LG) in a writ petition that challenged the twofold increase in the scheduled taxes on five bus-stands in the provincial metropolis. A division bench of the PHC, comprising Justice Said Maroof Khan and Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani, directed the respondent to furnish comments in the petition before next hearing in the case fixed for July 30. Earlier, another bench of the PHC had also directed the same respondent to submit comments with the court within a fortnight, but he did not comply with the court orders. The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by a transport union leader, Ehsanullah, stating he was an allotee of Bay No-1 at the Peshawar Bus Terminal and running inter-city public transport, “providing best quality air-conditioned bus service to the public.” He said the city district government collected the taxes from the petitioner as per schedule rates. However, the secretary for Local Government on behalf of the NWFP chief secretary issued a notification on June 6, doubling-up all the scheduled taxes on five general bus stands, lying under the jurisdiction of the district government. “Subsequently, re-auction notice on double rate (tax) was published in all the daily newspapers, inviting bids from the contractors,” he added. Interestingly, Ehsanullah said, the Peshawar District Coordination Officer (DCO) issued new tax schedule on June 20 for the transporters before the notification of Local Government secretary. He said being the president of Sarhad Public Transport Legal Action Committee; he issued legal notices to the respondents on June 26. “Resultantly, the auction process on June 28 failed but the respondents decided to run all the bus stands by themselves as per new schedule of double rate,” he added. The petitioner’s counsel, Aminur Rahman, argued that the “impugned” notification of June 23 had no legal effect, which deserved to be declared null and void. He said the district nazim and DCO were neither licensed to interfere into the matters relating to the above mentioned bus stands nor they could run them because under Rule-253 of the Motor Vehicle Rules, 1969 they were supposed to be permitted by the competent authority through license to administer the C-class bus stands and provide facilities as given in Rule-256. Amin further contended that legislation in this regard was governed by Local Government Ordinance, 2001, NWFP and Section 21 of General Clauses Act, 1897, which did not empower the authorities concerned to act in a manner so as to affect the accrued rights of a person. “Section 116 (2) of the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, further protects those rights, stating, “No tax shall be levied without a prior publication of the tax proposal and without inviting and considering public objections”. He said the notification would affect the public at large because the fares of transport were already unbearable for general public due to surge in the prices of petroleum products. “The new schedule (double rate) was issued on June 20 prior to the impugned notification of June 23, which proves the intention of the respondents,” he added. In interim relief, he sought the suspension of the notification and new schedule till a final disposal of the writ petition.