LAHORE, Feb 15: Justice Syed Jamshed Ali of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday allowed advocate M.D.Tahir to implead the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources as a party to the latest increase in POL prices in a writ petition through which he challenged the raise.

The court listed the petition for Wednesday (today) after the counsel requested the court to declare the price increase as illegal and against the interest of the people.

The lawyer submitted that the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) had not invited objections before revising the prices upward which was mandatory under the law. The lawyer-petitioner submitted that the increase was made at a time when prices of petroleum products in the international market had witnessed a decline.

He submitted that a major cause of the increase was that the government had sold 11 oil fields to multinational companies (MNCs) for a paltry $180 million about two years ago.

The loss of the units which catered around 75 per cent of the domestic oil consumption was, he submitted, a conspiracy hatched under the IMF and World Bank dictates. As a result, he stated there was a shortfall in the national oil reserves and the government had to purchase oil from the MNCs at a higher price.

The counsel also submitted that traders from Balochistan had time and again offered the government that they would be in a position to supply oil at cheaper prices if they were allowed to import petroleum products. This offer was yet to be considered. He submitted that the oil prices had a major impact on the national economy and the worst sufferer were the people.