December 24, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 19, 1423

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LAHORE, Dec 23: The Lahore High Court on Monday reserved judgment on a petition challenging the levy of sanitation tax after hearing arguments from the petitioner.

Petitioner-lawyer M. D. Tahir had challenged the sanitation tax on grounds that the authorities concerned had imposed this tax at the uniform rate in both developed and backward areas.

According to the petitioner, charging tax from the residents of backward areas at the rate equal to that of the developed areas was discrimination on the part of government.

He argued that provision of sanitation facility was the prime responsibility of the state and charging high rates from the less privileged people was unjustified.

He prayed the court to issue orders directing the state to withdraw the sanitation tax from backward areas.

RANA NAZIR: The LHC directed the NAB to transfer a reference against PML leader Rana Nazir to another accountability court on the accused’s application.

Rana Nazir had said in the application that he had lost faith in the impartiality of judge Rana Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

He alleged that the judge had been rejecting his applications moved during the trial without any legal justification and such conduct was sufficient to establish his prejudice.

The court observed that since the accused had raised question on the impartiality of the trial court, his further trial by that court would be against the principle of natural justice and the trial should be transferred to another court.

BY-POLLS: An election tribunal dismissed the applications of two candidates from NA-147, Sardar Talib Nakai and Rana Hayat Khan, challenging the candidature of each other.

The tribunal, while clearing both the candidates for the by-elections, observed that the grounds taken in their respective applications were not maintainable.

They had challenged each other’s candidature on the common ground of amassing illegal assets.

Meanwhile, the tribunal issued notice to the Punjab University for Tuesday on an application challenging the candidature of Malik Iqbal from NA-163.

Ghulam Muhammad Sarwar had claimed that the BA degree of Malik Iqbal was fake and he should be disqualified for contesting election for having committed forgery.