LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday suspended a notification of the Punjab government about enforcement of new prices for ghee and cooking oil.

Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi passed the order on petitions by some 25 vegetable ghee manufacturing mills and adjourned further hearing till Wednesday (today).

The director general of Industries, Prices, Weights & Measures on Nov 9, 2019 issued the impugned notification under section 6 of the Price Control and Prevention of Profiteering and Hoarding Act, 1977.

Advocate Abuzar Salman Niazi, the mills’ counsel, told the court that the government was forcing the mills to sell their product on a price not more than Rs180 per kg infringing their fundamental right to life protected under Article 3 of the Constitution.

He said the petitioners had the right to do lawful trade and they fixed price of the product due to the free market economy with open competition.

The counsel argued that the impugned notification was based on ulterior motives and devoid of any justifiable reasons as the provincial government had no authority to fix price of the product.

Previously on similar petitions, another bench of the high court had restrained the government from adopting coercive measures against the mills with respect to enforcement of new prices.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2019