LAHORE The Lahore High Court has directed all private laboratories across the Punjab to charge only Rs90 for a dengue (CBC) test till November 15 next. After this they would be at liberty to charge routine fees, provided the government did not seek extension in this period with the court permission, it observed. Justice Muhammad Khalid Mahmood Khan, hearing the petition against sealing and registration of FIR against Zeenat Laboratories (Pvt) Limited, also ordered de-sealing of the laboratory and quashed the case registered against it on the accusations of charging more than Rs90 a test. This fee was announced by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. For the petitioner, Dr Mubashir Hassan and Raza Kazim advocate opposed Rs90 fees for CBC test, explaining to the court that the CBC and dengue tests differed. The stage of CBC test, which is complete blood test, comes later after the dengue test result is positive, they informed the court. They said the CBC test is conducted in 70pc diseases and not in case of dengue alone. As such the laboratories are suffering loss in this test on account of other diseases also. A pathologist, appearing on the court call along with the provincial Health Secretary Jananzeb Khan, informed the court that the CBC is the litmus test to check platlets of a patient after he has caught fever and the platlets count determines the dengue attack and its effects on the blood, adding that platlets are regulated under medical advice and treatment in view of the CBC test results. As such, the CBC is the foremost test for a dengue patient, which hs repeatedly conducted. The pathologist also told the court that a CBC analyzer costs six to seven lakh rupees and the chemical used for the test costs Rs30, and Rs40 has been calculated as other expenses like electricity, labour, etc., while Rs20 is the profit and that aggregate of these all is Rs90. He said the province at present is going through an emergency situation wherein it had called the private laboratories to help the government to meet the challenge of dengue. The Secretary said the what the government is doing is purely in view of the public interest and there was no politics in seeking help of private laboratories to combat the problem. The court remarked that it a matter of life of the people and the private laboratories must also play their part to help the masses.