KARACHI, Sept 28: A division bench of the Sindh High Court has set aside the operative portion of an order of the provincial secretary excise and taxation with regard to property tax of 90, Clifton, which belongs to Benazir Bhutto and her sister Sanam, and is currently under the use of SZABIST.

In a constitutional petition perused by Iqbal Haider, advocate, the court held that property tax could not be reassessed with retrospective effect and directed the secretary excise and taxation for assessing the property tax at the same rate as it was being charged for schools and other institutions in the same zone.

In Sept 2000 the petitioner had received impugned notice demanding payment of Rs24,45,302 as outstanding property tax. On inquiries, the petitioner discovered that the respondent No 2 (E&T Dept) had revised the annual rental value of the property at commercial rate with retrospective effect and passed ex-parte order on July 24, 2000, determining property tax at the rate of Rs6,53,184 per annum at commercial rate, with retrospective effect from July 211,995, instead of the property tax of Rs10,255 per annum at the residential rate which had previously been paid regularly.

The petitioner had challenged the ex-parte order and the impugned notice before the respondent No 1 under Section 10 of the Urban Immovable Property Act of 1958.

The petitioner had contended that the respondent had discriminated against it and not applied the common yardstick for properties of similar nature in similar localities. The respondent accepted that fair treatment was given to all taxpayers. If such properties being schools/institutions were not being assessed on annual rent, then the same formula should be applied to all institutions.

The petitioner also cited the assessment being done in the case of Karachi Grammar School, Sir Syed University, Hamdard University, City School, Shaheen Public School, Habib Public School, etc.

AAG Suleman Habibullah opposed the contentions of counsel Haider.