The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline (SNGPL) on Friday asked the Lahore High Court (LHC) to dismiss a petition challenging increased POL prices and gas slab rates by declaring it non-maintainable. Both authorities, through their counsel, filed a reply in the court of Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and objected that the petition was not maintainable. They said the petitioner had an alternative remedy under Section 12(2) of OGRA ordinance 2002 to agitate POL prices.
The counsel for the SNGPL also said the petitioner had a remedy of filing a review about the gas slab rates under the rule 16 of the Natural Gas Tariff Rules 2002. At this, the petitioner’s counsel sought time to prepare his arguments in this regard and the court deferred the hearing. Pakistan Consumer Rights Forum General Secretary Hanif Goraya had filed a petition that the respondents had increased the POL prices by 10 percent despite the matter being sub-judice.
He said the government’s act was tyranny on the already burdened citizens and added that the highly inflated POL prices would increase the burden on the citizens. He said the poor had no option but to commit suicide whereas the country was being run on foreign loans as the leaders were not decreasing their expenditures. The petitioner requested to the court to direct the respondents to withdraw the impugned notification and grant status quo in public interest. He also prayed that a notification with regard to domestic gas slab rates’ increase be set aside and old rates be restored.