12 February 2004	Thursday	20 Zilhaj 1424

LAHORE, Feb 11: A division bench of the Lahore High Court has been constituted to hear from Thursday (today) a petition seeking registration of case against former chief justice of Pakistan Dr Nasim Hasan Shah.

The LHC office sent the petition to the bench, comprising Justices Sheikh Abdur Rashid and M. Bilal Khan, filed by PPP lawyer Mian Hanif Tahir, accusing Dr Shah of abetting in the murder of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The petitioner-lawyer has submitted that Dr Nasim Hasan Shah was a member of the 11-member bench of the Supreme Court which had upheld the death penalty. He has quoted the former chief justice as having said in two interviews that the appeal of the late Z.A. Bhutto against his death sentence, awarded by the Lahore High Court, was a fit case of lesser punishment.

He contended that the former chief justice had shown no such sentiments in joining hands with the majority opinion of the apex court's bench which confirmed the execution of Z.A. Bhutto.

SALES TAX CASE: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday disposed of various identical petitions against the levy of sales tax on bagasse and directed the petitioners to make a presentation with the sales tax collectorate in this connection.

The main petitioner was the Brother Sugar Mills and belonged to the family of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The court, after hearing counsel for the two parties, observed that petitioners would be free to approach the sales tax authorities for claiming adjustment of the input tax payable on bagasse against the output tax being demanded from them on the products of molasses and press-mud.

The court directed the sales tax authorities to dispose of such requests independently without being influenced by observations made by the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal and the Lahore High Court.

As for the question of recovery of additional tax on bagasse, the court declared it was concerned only with the fact that it would be decided at the rate and from the date when the SRO178(i) 2001 fixed the value of bagasse at Rs200 per metric ton in pursuance of the verdict of apex court in the Sheikhu Sugar Mills case.

The court directed the sales tax authorities to calculate and levy the additional tax or penalty from the date when the SRO fixed the price of bagasse at Rs200 per metric ton. Advocates Ijaz Ahmad Awan, Hamid Khan, Ali Sibtain Fazali and Mansoor Ali Shah appeared for the petitioners.