KARACHI, March 16: The petition against the imposition of fees on VCR and dish antenna has been withdrawn from the Supreme Court after the federal government rescinded the decision about these fees.

Earlier, after hearing Barrister Qamarul Islam Abbas, counsel for Humayun Qutub and other petitioners, the court had issued notice to the Attorney-General.

Barrister Abbas had contended that the amendment made to sub-section (20) of section 2 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1973 (ACT No XVII) was unconstitutional.

The Federal Legislative List subject Serial No 7 did not permit the federal government to legislate about items like video cassette recorder and video cassette player as these were not covered by the expression “broadcasting,” he had contended.

It was also his case that the Finance Ordinance of 1984 could not make general changes to the constitution/laws in the existing statutes which had no financial aspects and that, in any case, the powers of distribution formula was to be resolved in terms of article 70 of the constitution, which had not been followed in the instant case.