Four armed teenagers entered Jawad Karim’s house on Monday and shot him dead. They then walked away from the scene, said Imtiaz Adnan, Karim’s brother and a witness to the incident.

Adnan told The Express Tribune that four people armed with pistols had entered their house. One chased Karim to the first storey of the house and shot him in the chest. Adnan said he heard his brother cry out and reached the spot. He said he saw the assailant fleeing. He also saw three of his accomplices standing downstairs. They all simply walked away after killing Karim, said Adnan.

He alleged that Karim, 32, had been killed because of his religion. Local clerics had created a hostile environment for them, he said. Karim had also received several death threats, he said.

Green Town Station House Officer Sheikh Hammad told The Express Tribune that there may have been several motives for Karim’s murder. He said they had registered an FIR against unidentified suspects and started an investigation. He said Karim’s family had gone to Rabwa (Chenab Nagar) to bury him. Therefore they could not help the police trace the killers, he said. A formal investigation would be initiated once they returned, said Hammad.

The SHO said there could be several motives behind the murder, but he did not believe religion was one of them. If Karim was killed for being an Ahmadi, the killers would also have shot Adnan as he was there at the scene when Karim was shot, he said.

If the killers were religious extremists, they would have targetted Karim in a public area to create terror-not his house, said the SHO. Hammad suggested that the murder was likely motivated by a personal enmity, even though the family had said that Karim had no known enemies.

Karim is survived by his parents, a wife and two children. He ran a small clinic, Hussain Clinic, in the area. His wife, a doctor, looked after the clinic.

Jamaat-i-Ahmadia Pakistan spokesperson Saleemudin said Karim had been targetted because of his faith. He condemned the incident and said it had occurred as part of an on-going campaign against Ahmadis in Lahore. False FIRs were registered against Ahmadis, he said, and they were being targetted mercilessly. He said that the government had failed to protect the minorities and controlling the hate-campaign against Ahmadis.

Saleemudin said fatwas were regularly issued against Ahmadis in public meetings. Banners and stickers that incited hatred against Ahmadis were openly distributed and displayed. He appealed to the government to protect their lives and liberty.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2013.

Rs1.715 billion has been set aside for the AJP while Rs1.42 billion has been allocated for buildings for the judiciary. However, the budget does not provide a break up of funds allocated for schemes under the AJP.

According to the budget document, the judiciary spent Rs1.34 billion of the Rs1.49 billion earmarked for the AJP in 2012-13. Out of the Rs1.51 billion allocated for buildings for the judiciary only Rs942 million was used.

The new budget has allocated Rs200 million for the construction of a judicial complex in Lahore (Phase-II). Rs38.02 million has been set aside for additions/changes to the Lahore High Court and the preservation of old buildings in the East Block. Rs174.55 million has been set aside for the construction of the clock room, committee room, toilets block and the additional room in the Model Town courts.

Rs20 million has been allocated to enhance security on court premises. Funds for the construction of boundary walls around civil and sessions courts are included in this. Rs50 million has been marked down for the construction of a judicial complex at Pattoki, Kasur. Rs1.42 billion would be used for 137 on-going schemes of the judiciary and new schemes in 2013-14.

Funds have been set aside for judicial complexes (non-residential) at Jhelum and Sohawa. Residential blocks would also be constructed for judiciary officials in Kahuta, Rawalpindi.

Several new schemes would be launched to facilitate litigants. These include the construction of a litigant shed and litigant room at the judicial complex in Kahuta. The construction of judicial complexes in Sangla Hill, Wazirabad and Mandi Bahauddin, women litigants’ sheds in the civil court complex in Sahiwal and Bahawalpur will also be completed. Development projects include the upgrade and renovation of the old library at the Lahore High Court, construction of a mosque on the Lahore High Court premises, a Bahawalpur Bench, and installation of split air-conditioners at the LHC.

Under the new schemes, Rs23.14 million has been allocated for the construction of seven courts in Bhalwal in district Sargodha; and Rs7.7 million for the construction of courts for additional sessions judges in Bhakkar.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2013.

Rs20 billion has been allocated in the 2013-2014 budget for energy sectorprojects.

The federal government is also blamed for its failure to meet revenue targets, making Punjab suffer a shortfall of about Rs82 billion in its share of the federal divisible pool during the last fiscal year.

The White Paper says the national economy had grown by an average of only 2.94 per cent in the last five years, which it said, was the lowest average for five years in the history of Pakistan. Growth in the Punjab had been even slower due to more power outages than other parts of the country.

Increasing tax revenue

It said that the tax to the GDP ratio in Pakistan was “dismally low”. To deal with it, the Punjab government now plans to widen the tax base, rationalisation of the rates of existing taxes and improvement of tax collection system.

The Provincial Revenue Authority collected Rs30 billion as sales tax on services in the first 10 months of its operation. This is expected to reach Rs37 billion by the end of the current fiscal year. The government plans to further widen the scope of this tax by adding 16 more services in the list of services liable to sales tax.

Another important tax reform this year was the provision of agriculture income tax. The summary said that the Punjab government recognised that agriculture income tax was the demand of equity and was widely considered a must for an economy to flourish. It would be enforced in the 2013-2014 financial year.

Through the five years of crisis, the summary says, the Punjab government had avoided heavy borrowing or taxing the poor. The total debt liability of the Punjab government is 51 per cent of its general revenue receipts. The annual debt retirement liability is around 6.5 per cent of the provincial revenue.

Development initiatives

The development initiatives planned for 2013-2014 focus on the poor segments of the society to ensure inclusive “pro-poor development interventions”, including provision of livestock to the rural poor, subsidy on wheat, subsidised bus transport system in major cities, Daanish schools, Punjab Education Endowment Fund, low income housing schemes, health insurance card in four pilot districts, Aashiana Housing Scheme and subsidy on solar tube wells. Most of the budget in the education and health is traditionally spent on salaries. In order to counter this trend, the Punjab government has allocated dedicated funds for 2013-2014 to increase non-salary expenditure in these sectors.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2013.

According to the Pakistani government, the Chinese firm was supplying inferior and defective engines. The chief justice of the Lahore High Court expressed displeasure over the fact that while the government accused the Chinese company of supplying inferior engines, it had awarded the same company another contract.

The case was fixed for hearing on June 14. Finding the performance of Chinese company, Dongfang Electric International Corporation, unsatisfactory, the chief justice declined the company’s request for an order to the federal government to allow the company to cash a $17.55 million bank guarantee. He gave the company time to improve its performance if it wanted relief from the court.

The chief justice held that, prima facie, the government’s grievance against the petitioning company was the supply of 69 diesel locomotives of inferior quality under a contract signed on November 8, 2001. The court noted that complaint persisted and there was no material on record to exonerate the petitioning company in respect of the allegation.

The CJ expressed concern that a $104 million contract for 75 locomotives had still been awarded to the same firm.

Hierarchy issue

On June 12, the Lahore High Court ordered a deputy attorney general to appear

on June 20 to state which institution had the authority to check the quality of CNG cylinders. Justice Ayesha A Malik was hearing a petition by owners of various CNG stations who complained that representatives of several institutions harassed them on the pretext of checking the quality of cylinders. They said that the Hydro Carbon Development Institution of Pakistan, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and the Explosives Department had conducted raids on CNG stations to check the quality of cylinders there. They said this was creating problems.

Seeking disqualification

On June 11, the LHC disposed of a petition seeking disqualification of Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and MNA Khawaja Saad Rafique, asking the petitioner to approach the election commission in this regard. After hearing the petitioner, Shahid Orakzai, the court noted that the petition sought to disqualify the candidates, but the elections were over and they had been elected.

Therefore, the court said, he should move the election commission in this regard. Orakzai had submitted that Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique should be declared disqualified for public office being involved in an attack on the Supreme Court.

Faulty investigation

On June 11, the LHC rejected an investigation conducted by Sheikhupura Health EDO Rana Raza in the matter of the theft of refrigerators for measles vaccination, and ordered him to reinvestigate the matter.

The EDO appeared before the court on a petition by a drug inspector, Bilal Yasin, from Ferozewala. Yasin submitted that he had been suspended for reporting the theft of refrigerators provided by the UNICEF to store measles vaccines. He submitted that of the 81 refrigerators given to Sheikhupura, 36 had gone missing.

Bar membership suspended

On June 12, the Lahore High Court Bar Association suspended the membership of a lawyer, accusing him of watching pornographic sites and movies on the Bar premises. Advocate Muhammad Afaq was also accused of misbehaving with senior members, lady lawyers and bar employees.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2013.

LAHORE: Giving in to pressure of a United Khatam-i-Nabuwat led two-month long vigilante siege of an Ahmadi magazine office, police on Thursday registered an FIR against the magazine’s administration and confiscated all its records since 1952, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A large police contingent raided the office late on Thursday. They broke the locks and confiscated all the material in the absence of the magazine staff. More than 50 anti-Ahmadi clerics were present at the office at the time.

The police did not let the protesting clerics enter the office. However, several Ahmadis said the clerics had tried to plant blasphemous material in the office.

The complainant, Muhammad Yaqoob, had sought the registration of an FIR under Sections 298-C, 295 (B), 295 (C) and Section 11-W of the Anti Terrorism Act, the police however have registered an FIR under Section 298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code only.

The complainant and other members of the Khatam-i-Nabuwat Lawyers Forum said they were not happy with the FIR. They called it ‘soft’ and demanded prosecution of the magazine’s administration under sections dealing with blasphemy and terrorism.

Yaqoob told The Express Tribune that they would use all legal options to ensure prosecution on blasphemy and anti-terrorism charges. “If the police don’t add the relevant sections to the FIR, we will move a court,” he said.

The FIR has been registered against the publisher of the weekly, The Lahore, Mian Muhammad Shah Jee; Editor, Yasir Zervi; Yasir Mansoor Ahmed and two others.

Yaqoob said that he had seen Zervi and two others circulating copies of the magazine on April 23.  He said he too was given a copy of the
magazine and had found blasphemous content in it.

Munawar Ali Shahid, an Ahmadi and a rights activist, told The Express Tribune that Poet Saqib Zervi had started the weekly in 1951. It was published every Friday, he said.

Zervi died in 2001 and his sons Yasir Zervi and Mansoor Zervi took over.

He said the magazine had been publishing social, cultural, political, economic and literary material, but had now fallen prey to
anti-Ahmadi elements.

Prosecuted under: 298-C of the PPC

Person of Quadiani group, etc, calling himself a Muslim or preaching or propagating his faith: Any person of the Quadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves ‘Ahmadis’ or by any other name), who directly or indirectly, poses himself as a Muslim, or calls, or refers to, his faith as Islam, or preaches or propagates his faith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations, or in any manner whatsoever outrages the religious feelings of Muslims shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term

which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2013. 

Since the siege began, the circulation and publishing of the weekly, The Lahore, has stopped. The anti-Ahmadi activists have not only stopped the magazine’s administration from entering the office, located on the first floor of Galaxy Law Chambers, but also have not let them take away the printed material and furniture from the office.

The men patrol the spot round-the-clock so that nothing can be removed from the premises.

Jamaat-i-Ahmadia Pakistan spokesperson Saleemudin said the siege laid by a group of extremists was part of a campaign against Ahmadis. They had also lodged several false FIRs under the blasphemy law against Ahmadis, he said.

“They forced the magazine’s owners to leave the place and are now stealing their possessions from the office with the connivance of the police,” he said.

Saleemudin said they were trying to victimise the magazine staff for their religious beliefs.

He said they were pressuring the police to register an FIR against them. “Instead of providing them security, the police appear to be encouraging the extremists to continue the siege,” he said.

Muhammad Yaqoob, a member of the United Khatam-i-Nabuwat told The Express Tribune that they had laid siege to the office to “Get God’s blessings”. He said the magazine carried blasphemous content and should be banned. He said at least eight of their men remained at the office to prevent Ahmadis from entering the office and removing material from it. “We will remove it ourselves with help from the police after we manage to have an FIR registered against them under blasphemy laws,” he said.

He said an additional sessions judge had ordered the registration of an FIR, but the police were favouring the Ahmadis by not registering it.

He said a contempt of court petition had been moved before the Lahore High Court for the implementation of the court’s orders for the registration of an FIR.

According to Yaqoob’s application, he requested the police to register an FIR under Sections 298-C, 295 (B), 295 (C) and Section 11-W of the Anti Terrorism Act against magazine publisher Mian Muhammad Shah Jee, editor Yasir Zervi, Yasir Mansoor Ahmed and two others. He said that he had seen Yasir Zervi and two others circulating copies of the magazine on April 23. He said he too was given a copy of the magazine and had found blasphemous content in it.

He requested the police to seize everything in the office and seal it forever.

Munawar Ali Shahid, an Ahmadi and a rights activist, told The Express Tribune that Poet Saqib Zervi had started the weekly, The Lahore, in 1951. It was published every Friday, he said.

Zervi died in 2001 and his sons Yasir Zervi and Mansoor Zervi took over.

He said the magazine had been publishing social, cultural, political, economic and literary material for the last 62 years, but had now fallen prey to anti-Ahmadi elements.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2013.

LAHORE: The representatives of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) have suspended membership of a bar member accusing him of viewing porn sites in the bar room.

Advocate Muhammad Afaq was accused of misbehaving with senior bar members, lady lawyers and abusing bar employees.

Ghulam Sarwar Nihang, acting president of the LHCBA, sent a notice to Afaq informing him that “your membership of Lahore High Court Bar Association has been ceased with immediate effect and the matter will be placed before the General House of the bar”.

In the notice, Nihang said there were numerous complaints lodged against the accused by the senior members of the bar.

The notice further stated that Afaq had misbehaved with the senior members of the bar, especially the lady lawyers, several times and once, while sitting in the Kiyani Hall of the bar, he had opened porn websites and invited the members sitting around him to see the movies.

He had also indulged himself in a brawl with some senior members and very recently he had abused employees of the bar, used criminal force against them, torn files of very important nature and broken a computer in the admin office. In this context an application was submitted by the effected staff to Old Anarkali police for the registration of an FIR against him.

Nihang said Afaq had submitted an apology to the president of the bar, confessing his involvement in the aforementioned allegations and had promised that he would not enter the premises of the bar and would refrain from misbehaving with the members and staff in the future. He had also mentioned that if he enters the bar or commits any untoward act, his membership of the bar should be ceased forthwith.

Acting President of the LHCBA, in the letter, said, “You, in violation of your own commitment, kept visiting Lahore High Court Bar Association, Lahore and displayed number of notices containing false and frivolous allegation against office bearers of this bar, judges and registrar of the LHC.

“A committee headed by Usman Sher Gondal, Finance Secretary Lahore High Court Bar Association, Lahore was constituted by the president. The committee served you notice to clarify your position but you failed to comply with the order of the committee,” the letter added.

“Through this notice you are hereby intimated that on account of above complaints the committee found you guilty of unprofessional conduct, hence your membership of the bar has been ceased with immediate effect and the matter will be placed before the General House of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Lahore,” the notice issued by the acting president concluded.

While this could bring some financial relief to the families, it cannot bring their loved ones back.

While the Supreme Court’s direction on June 6 to ensure payment of compensation was appreciated in legal circles, it is not clear what steps have been taken to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.

The Punjab government had previously requested a judicial inquiry into the matter. The inquiry tribunal, headed by a judge of the Lahore High Court, had recommended strict action against the company management and others involved. It had also suggested that a task force of pharmaceutical experts be set up to conduct ‘current good-manufacturing practice compliance audits’ of drug manufacturers. Companies found lacking in this regard should be suspended. The tribunal had recommended that temporary workers should not be allowed in drug manufacturing and related activities. It had recommended that suppliers and distributors should transport heat-sensitive drugs in special vehicles.

“The present system of transportation of drugs in trucks that have no temperature control, must be discontinued,” the report read. Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi should act as consultants for the establishment of a model pharmacy at the PIC. The hospital should have professional administrators with no direct responsibility for clinical work, said the tribunal. It had also suggested that the Punjab government set up a separate hierarchy and service structure for pharmacists and a separate pharmacy directorate.

The tribunal had suggested that the government invest a substantial amount of money to acquire modern equipment, hire qualified personnel and build the capacity of its “ill-equipped and under-staffed” drug-testing laboratory.

Six months later, the tribunal’s recommendations are yet to be implemented.

Another compensation

On June 7, a single bench of the LHC issued notices to the federal government and Punjab governor on a petition by 28 persons affected in the Joseph Colony arson, regarding the compensation announced by the federal government.

The petitioners had submitted that the federal government had announced compensation of Rs500,000 for each household affected in the incident.

They said the compensation money was to be distributed through the Punjab governor. They accused the governor of distributing compensation on the basis of political affiliation.

Singh

A single-member judicial commission comprising Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi of the Lahore High Court visited Kot Lakhpat jail on Saturday and collected complete records of convicted Indian spy Sarabjit Singh, who was beaten to death by prison inmates. Justice Naqvi also visited the block and cell Singh had been incarcerated in and interviewed some prisoners regarding the matter.

The commission has issued notices to Singh’s family, through the ministry of foreign affairs, to record their statements and to produce the evidence related to the incident. Pakistani witnesses in the case were summoned for June 10 (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2013.

The police are not registering an FIR against the men even though medico-legal reports have established injuries suffered by the women, says the family. The police told The Express Tribune that the landlord’s family were “innocent”. The Christian family, they said, was being “used” by the landlord’s rivals.

Bibi Rani, the mother-in-law of the injured women (aged 19, 26 and 35), told The Express Tribune that they were woken from sleep in the middle of the night on June 3 when Muhammad Ibrahim, Muhammad Rafique, their seven sons and four other men entered their house after scaling the boundary wall.

She said they were looking for her sons. Finding none of them home, she said, they had started abusing her daughters-in-law and beating them up. Their shirts were torn in the process, she said. The men had then dragged them out and beaten them up before they left.

It all started with a herd of goats, owned by the Christian family, entering Ibrahim’s nursery and damaging about a hundred saplings, says Shaukat Masih, the husband of one of the women. He said he had had an argument with Muhammad Munir, Ibrahim’s son, when he locked his goats in a cattle shed and refused to return them.

“We (the three brothers and his sister-in-law) went to them again to request them to release our goats,” Shaukat Masih told The Express Tribune. He said he had told Munir off when he “misbehaved” with his sister-in-law and pushed her. “Munir slapped me and then I slapped him. He was furious, saying how dare a Christian slap him,” Masih said. Elders of the area intervened then and persuaded Munir to return the goats.

Munir, however, filed an application at Pattoki Saddar police station against them. Learning about the complaint against them, said Masih, the men of the house decided to ‘disappear’ to avoid arrest.

The medico-legal certificates “establish torture”, said Masih, “My mother has filed an application but the police are reluctant to register an FIR.”

Pattoki Saddar SHO Haji Abdul Aziz said, “The Christians are accusing innocent people.” He said that the ‘goat incident’ did take place but added that “there was no truth to the allegation that Ibrahim and others had entered their house and humiliated the women”.

Aziz said the doctor who examined the women had recommended action under Section 337-F(1) (Punishment of ghayr-jaifah) of the Pakistan Penal Code “which is not a cognisable offence”. “That is why FIR can be registered”. The PPC section deals with punishment for injuries in which the skin is ruptured and bleeding has occurred (damiyah). According to the section, a court can decide a compensation that is to paid by the offender to the victim for causing such hurt. The offender can also be punished with imprisonment up to a year.

Advocate Tipu Salman Makhdoom, a lawyer The Express Tribune talked to, said that the police “must still register an FIR” for trespass and humiliation of the women.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2013.

LAHORE: Two Christian men moved the Federal Shariat Court on Saturday against the provision of permits to Christians for selling and consuming alcohol, calling it a stigma on Christianity.

Petitioners Naseem Masih and Aslam Pervaiz Sahotra said that like Muslims, Christians were not allowed to use intoxicants. The view that Christians used liquor as part of religious ceremonies was a blight on Christianity, they said.

The Christian licence holders mostly sold liquor to Muslims but brought a bad name to Christianity, they said. The sale of liquor increases around Islamic festivals, they said, a clear indication that these licence holders supply it to Muslims.

The petitioners submitted that the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order IV of 1979 prohibited the manufacturing, possession, sale, export and transport of all kinds of intoxicants, the violation of which would entail punishment. According to Article-4 of the Order, the prohibition would not apply to non-Muslim foreigners or non-Muslim citizens. They could posses a reasonable quantity of intoxicating liquor for the purpose of using it as a part of religious ceremonies, the Order stated.

In view the prohibition order, the Punjab government had introduced the Punjab Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Rules 1979, under which the Excise and Taxation Department’s director general could issue licences to non-Muslims.

The petitioners said that while it appeared that Christians who were issued licences only sold liquor to members of their own community that in fact, was not the case.

The petitioners submitted that according to the Order, licences should only be issued to persons representing an institution, not individuals.

They said all holy books forbid the use of intoxicants. “When holy books do not allow their followers to use liquor, how can one person allow another its use by quoting law?” asked the petitioners.

They said the Excise and Taxation Department was using the order for its own nefarious purposes. It’s policy to issue licences to Christians was not declared illegal and unlawful, the petitioners said, many Christians would suffer irreparable loss and injury.

They said the issuance of licences to individuals not only promoted social degradation but also went against the Holy Bible’s teachings. They prayed the court to declare the provision of Article-17 of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order 4 of 1979 and Rule-12 of the Punjab Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Rules 1979 illegal.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2013.