The Lahore High Court has issued notices to the petroleum ministry and Ogra officials seeking reply regarding government mechanism for determining petrol prices till Sept 13. LHC Justice Shahid Kareem heard a miscellaneous petition challenging government mechanism for raising POL products prices every fortnight. Deputy Attorney General Asad Ali Bajwa appeared before the court on behalf of federal government. The counsel for petitioner contended that oil prices were going down all over the world but in Pakistan they were going up. He said there was no mechanism for raising prices of petroleum products and oil prices would again soar after 15 days. Justice Kareem ordered the deputy attorney general to submit a report explaining procedure used to raise petrol prices next week. The petition stated that no solid reasons were given for hiking the POL products prices. It further stated that increase in oil prices had made lives of common people very difficult, beseeching the court to void the increase in oil rates announced by the government.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP