The Sindh High Court on Wednesday gave last opportunity to the chief executive officer of the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) to show up in court and submit explanation for flouting its orders.
A division bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar expressed displeasure over the absence of chief executive officer directing him to appear before it on Thursday.
The court had taken up a contempt of court application filed by Pakistan Beverages Limited against the CBC officers for charging exorbitant advertisement fee. The counsel for the applicant submitted that the SHC bench had directed the CBC to charge fee for advertisement boards strictly in accordance with law and reimburse the excess advertisement fee. Subsequently, he added, the applicant firm forwarded its claim to CBC for reimbursement.
Later, he stated, the CBC instead of refunding the amount got published a notification in a paper, threatening that in case payment of advertisement board tax was not made within three days, boards will be removed and the multinational companies’ vehicles will not be allowed to enter the premises of CBC.
Moreover, the counsel said that the applicant had been receiving threats from the CBC officers to pay excessive advertisement fee as per their wishes. He argued that the CBC officers were flouting the court order and their acts amounted to contempt of the court. Therefore, he pleaded with the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the CBC executive officer and others.