Court suspends further toll till August 3, seeks response from NHA and Ministry of Communications
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday restrained the National Highway Authority (NHA) from charging an additional 50% from motorists traveling without an M-Tag or with insufficient M-Tag balance and suspended the authority’s notification till the next hearing on August 3.
The court also issued notices to the NHA, Ministry of Communications and other respondents for their responses.
Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir passed the interim order after conducting a preliminary hearing on a petition filed by lawyer Muhammad Jalal Haider.
Read: SCBAP to challenge NHA’s ‘extortion’ via toll hikes
The NHA had announced a 50% increase in tolls for vehicles without M-Tag or with insufficient M-Tag balance, effective June 15, 2025, as part of its plan to implement a 100pc M-Tag system across the country’s highways.
The petition named the NHA, the Ministry of Communications and other parties as respondents, and asked the court to declare the extra charge illegal and order the authorities to refund the amount collected from the public under the fine.
According to the petition, the NHA issued a notification on May 30, 2025, imposing an additional 50% toll, described as a penalty, on vehicles plying without an M-Tag or with insufficient M-Tag balance.
The petitioner argued that Section 10 of the NHA Act only empowered the authority to levy toll and did not contain any provision allowing it to impose penalties on either non-M-Tag vehicles or those with low M-Tag balance.
The petition alleged that the NHA recovered the additional amount without any legal authority.
It asked the court to declare the May 30 notification unconstitutional and void, order the NHA to refund all additional amounts collected under the notification and seek details of the mechanism governing M-Tag balances and its implementation.
