Fuel trouble: LHC allows govt to purchase 100 buses for Lahore

PARCO can provide Euro-II compliant diesel; PSO, Attock refinery cannot.

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday allowed the government to open tenders for the purchase of 100 Euro-II compliant diesel buses for the Metropolitan Bus System (MBS). The government had sought to purchase 1,200 such buses.

The order was issued on an application filed by the government to vacate the stay order granted by Justice Ijazul Ahsan on a petition by a private transport company challenging the tender.

On September 3, Justice Ahsan had restrained the government from opening bids to purchase 1,200 Euro-II diesel compliant buses on a writ petition moved by Gujranwala City Tours through Advocate Tafazzul H Rizvi.

On Friday, Advocate General Ashtar Ausaf Ali, the transport secretary and some representatives of oil refineries appeared before the court.

Ausaf Ali said the government wanted to import 200 Euro-II diesel compliant buses for colleges and universities and 100 for the MBS within three months.

He said the stay order was stopping the government from completing the import of 100 buses.

He asked the court to allow the government to open bids for procuring 100 Euro-II diesel buses since the petitioner had no issue with the purchase of buses for the MBS.

Transport Secretary Captain (retired) Muhammad Yousaf told the court Euro-I compliant diesel buses were causing environmental pollution while Euro-II compliant diesel buses would not do so.

The PARCO representative said they had ample stock of Euro-II diesel for supply on demand.

However, representatives of PSO and Attock Oil Refinery said they did not produce the required grade of diesel.

The counsel for the petitioner said PARCO had only 166 of the 4,100 petrol pumps in the province, most of them in Lahore.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan recorded the arguments and granted the governments’ request to be allowed to open bids for the purchase of 100 Euro-II buses. The court adjourned further hearing till September 17.

The petitioner had contended the government wanted to purchase 1,200 Euro-II compliant diesel buses, which would be given to operators, potentially including the petitioner on against soft term mortgages.

Spending limit:

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court set a Rs300,000 limit in spending by candidates contesting the election of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).

Barrister Zafarullah Khan of the Watan Party filed the petition saying candidates spent millions of rupees in the election. He said, after winning the election, they started serving vested interests rather than the community. He said the high election spending made participation impossible for lawyers with less money.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2012.