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FAISALABAD, Feb 18: District and Sessions Judge Abdul Waheed Khan, suspending the orders of a lower court, has allowed the district government to collect toll.
The judge also remanded the case to a civil Judge, Zahid Ghaznavi, for further proceedings and final verdict in this regard. According to reports, Arshad Ali Warraich, former secretary of the District Bar Association, had filed a civil suit against the collection of toll by the district government contractors.
After short hearing of the case, Civil Judge Zulfiqar Ahmad Naeem issued stay orders against toll collection and forbade the administration from doing so. Subsequently, the district government lodged an appeal with the D&SJ, challenging the validity of the orders issued by the civil judge against the collection of toll on five main roads of the district.
Advocate S M Iqbal defended the government's case while over a dozen lawyers were against the toll collection. After a number of hearings, the judge suspended the decision of the lower court and allowed the district administration to collect the toll. The court also fixed the case for detailed arguments.
CRITICIZE: The PPP and PML-N have demanded return of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in an honourable way.
In their statements issued here on Wednesday, the leaders of both the parties said the country had been passing through a critical phase and there was a dire need to make a consensus before taking vital decisions on the Kashmir issue and the country's nuclear programme.
Punjab PPP Secretary-General Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan, MPAs - Dr Asad Moazzam and Jahanzeb Imtiaz Gill - claimed that the days of the government were numbered, as the protesting people would force the rulers to quit the corridors of power.
They said the insult of the nuclear scientists was a clear proof of the fact that the government was playing in the hands of the US forces. PML-N MNA Abid Sher Ali, MPA Muhammad Nawaz Malik and former parliamentarians - Khwaja Muhammad Islam, Mian Abdul Mannan, Rana Zahid Tauseef and Rana Muhammad Afzal - alleged that the rulers were adopting policies against the national interest.
They said the government had failed to resolve the people's problems and was raising hollow slogans. The law and order situation was worsening with every passing day; unemployment was on the rise, and prices of daily-use articles had gone beyond the reach of the poor.
Meanwhile, the protest movement launched by the PPP entered the sixth day. The PPP leaders set up a camp on the Faisalabad-Sargodha Road, which was attended by MPAs, Raja Riaz Ahmad, Riaz Shahid, Asad Moazzam and Jahanzeb Imtiaz Gill. Wearing black armbands, the protesters chanted slogans against the government and demanded immediate return of the former prime ministers.
