LAHORE, Sept 3: The Lahore High Court on Monday stopped the Punjab government for opening tender bids to buy as many as 1,200 diesel buses, issuing a stay order to the effect.

In a case titled Gujranwala City Tours (Private) Limited versus the Punjab government, the petitioner through his counsel challenged the process of bids called by the government to procure 1,200 Euro-II compliant diesel buses and to give them to operators on a soft-term loan basis.

The petitioner’s counsel said the government was going to spend huge public money to procure a large number of diesel buses about which the oil refineries had already notified their inability to produce Euro-II complaint diesel in near future.

He also argued that in the recent past, the government purchased CNG buses that lain idle three days a week due to non-availability of CNG. Therefore, procuring Euro-II compliant buses that cost about 45 per cent higher would be an exercise in futility and wastage of public money in absence of the requisite oil.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Ijazul Ahsan issued a stay order, restraining the respondent from doing so.