LAHORE, Aug 20: Mr Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq of the Lahore High Court issued notice on Tuesday to the provincial government on a writ petition questioning the discrimination between the retired government servants and the employees of the public sector corporations in respect of property tax exemption.

Muhammad Din, a retired divisional engineer of the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited, contended in his writ petition that a house each owned and occupied by a retired government servant was exempt from property tax under the West Pakistan Immoveable Property Tax Act, 1958, and the Punjab Urban Councils (Immoveable Property Tax) Rules 1999.

The Exise and Taxation Department, he said, was exercising discrimination in this regard against retired employees of the public sector corporations owned by the federation by denying them the facility.

Petitioner’s counsel, Amer Mahmood, contended that the retired employees of the public sector corporations were the employees of the federal government and deserved to be treated similarly.

He said the Constitution guaranteed equal treatment to all the citizens.