ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) will move the Lahore High Court (LHC) in the next couple of days against banning of its advertisements in the national dailies, sources from the CDA told Dawn.

The sources said the authority had prepared the paperwork for filing the case to get the ban lifted.

The authority is reportedly suffering immensely, as almost all its projects have stopped due to ban on its advertisements imposed by All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) for not paying advertisement charges amounting to Rs5.2 million to an advertisement company.

They said the authority was also considering to get its advertisements published in those dailies which were not members of the APNS. However, these newspapers are not certified by the government and the authorities concerned, the sources added.

A source, who had attended some meetings held between the officials of the CDA and the APNS on the issue, told Dawn that the representatives of the APNS were of the view that they had sent four or five letters to the CDA but the authority did not reply.

The sources said the advertisement agency had claimed that the CDA had to pay a sum of Rs5.2 million for its advertisement campaign launched for the housing project, known as Islamabad New City Project (INC).

They said the project of Islamabad New City (INC) was jointly launched by the CDA and a private firm M G Hertz in 1996. The amount of the victims was deposited in a tripartite account held by the CDA, a Singapore-based firm Asia Challenge International (ACI) and the M.G Hertz (MGH), the developing company. The project was executed by the ACI. But the company was dissolved in its own country due to unknown reasons, the source said.