LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan on Tuesday stayed the sale of toshakhana articles and issued notices to the attorney general of Pakistan for a reply on behalf of the federal government.

A citizen, Adnan Paracha, argued through his counsel that the government had decided to sell the articles of the toshakhana through auction to the officers of the federal government and armed forces only. He said the process forthe auction was sheer discriminatory and unlawful. He asked the court to set aside the impugned process and order the government to also allow common citizens to participate in the auction.

After hearing the initial contention, Chief Justice Khan observed that prima facie the process of the auction was in violation of Article 25 of the Constitution, which envisages equality of the citizens.

The chief justice remarked that non-transparency was evident atthe first step of the auction process.

`Is only the bureaucracy eligible to buy these items?` the chief justice posed a query to the government and added were the rest of the people insects in the country.

CJ Khan observed that the government`s decision of selling the toshakhana items to its officials only was like a blind man distributing sweets but among his loved ones only.

The chief justice suspended the notification of the auction till further order and sought a reply fromthe government by the next hearing.

As per the impugned notification issued by the cabinet division states, `It has been decided to dispose of various articles available in the Toshakhana of the cabinet division to the officers of federal government and the armed forces through auction by inviting sealed bids.

The sealed bids were invited up to Nov 23 while the bids were scheduled to be open on Nov 25. Staff Reporter