21 February 2004	Saturday	29 Zilhaj 1424

LAHORE, Feb 20: The Lahore High Court on Friday disposed of a plea against a detection bill, and directed Wapda to redress the petitioner's grievance within 30 days.

The petition filed by Anwar Khan, a factory owner, submitted that his meter got burnt by Wapda during checking, but he was sent a detection bill of Rs116,105. He submitted that he did not clear it because it was excessive and approached the Wapda authorities, but to no avail.

He submitted that he moved the high court which ordered the Batapur XEN to redress the complaint, but his application was still pending and Wapda failed to comply with the court order.

The Batapur SDO appearing before the court stated that the previous XEN was transferred and his incumbent available in the office. The court directed him to convey the court order to the XEN for resolving the problem.

PROPERTY TAX CASE: The High Court put off hearing of various petitions against the new property tax system for Feb 23 due to non-availability of the Punjab advocate-general. The court was informed that AGP Shabbar Raza Rizvi was busy in the Saarc law moot in Karachi, and he would be available on Monday.

The petitions filed by Mohammad Fayyaz and others, requested the court to declare the system illegal and restrain the authorities concerned from recovering the tax under this system. -APP