LAHORE: Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court Wednesday restrained the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) from collecting taxes. The court also sought assistance from the Punjab advocate general on certain points and deferred further hearing of the petition against the formation of the authority. Anwar Attique Malik, a taxpayer, had filed the petition, claiming that the PRA was not properly constituted and as such its functioning was illegal. He said that the PRA was collecting millions of rupees from the citizens by imposing tax even on services. He claimed that under the Punjab Revenue Authority Act 2012, the formation of the authority was not completed and an incomplete authority could not recover taxes. He said that the Supreme Court had already declared constitution of the authority illegal. Separately, Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court Wednesday sought reply from the Punjab Health Department, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on a petition of 37 students of the Fatima Jinnah Medical University seeking issuance of MBBS degrees. The court ordered the respondents to file their replies until September 6. The counsel for the petitioners submitted that his clients had passed the MBBS exams but the university’s administration was not issuing them their degrees. He said that non-issuance of degree had put the petitioners’ future at stake. He requested the court to order the university to issues degrees to the petitioners. Published in Daily Times, August 3nd 2017.