LAHORE, April 12: The Lahore High Court dismissed on Friday another Sharif family member’s petition challenging a rule differentiating between the shares of public and private companies for purposes of tax assessment.

About 22 petitions were filed by the various members of the family, claiming that Rule 8 (2) (c) (1) of the Wealth Tax Rules was violative of the Wealth Tax Act inasmuch as the latter required all public and private company shares to be assessed at their market value.

The impugned rule, on the contrary, provided that while the public limited company shares would be assessed at market or face value, whichever is higher, those of the private companies would be calculated according to the lower of the two values.

The petitioners described the rule as discriminatory and ultra vires and Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum (since retired) accepted some the petitions in 1998. The income tax department challenged the ruling in the Supreme Court and the apex court upheld the rule as being based on reasonable classification. The petitioners have moved the court for a review of its judgment.

Some of the remaining petitions, including that of Hamza Shahbaz, son of former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, came up for hearing before Justice Nasim Sikandar, who disposed of them in terms of the SC judgment. The petitions challenged past assessments involving millions of rupees. The wealth tax was abolished in the year 2001.