In the election held on Saturday, Pir Masood Chishti became LHCBA president for 2015-16 defeating Sheikh Shahid Maqbool. Chishti bagged 4,053 votes and Maqbool 3,118. PHOTO: LHC.GOV.PK
LAHORE: Recent elections of the Lahore High Court Bar Association saw Justice (retd) Malik Muhammad Qayyum return to bar politics through his son who has been elected secretary of the bar.
Qayyum, who still remains influential in bar politics and was president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, had fallen afoul of lawyers after former chief justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry was suspended by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. Three years ago, his son Ahmed Qayyum had had to withdraw his candidature for secretary.
In the election held on Saturday, Pir Masood Chishti became LHCBA president for 2015-16 defeating Sheikh Shahid Maqbool. Chishti bagged 4,053 votes and Maqbool 3,118. Irfan Arif Sheikh was elected vice president with 4,309 votes and the opposing candidate, Sofia Masood, bagged 2,805 votes. Ahmad Qayyum became secretary with 3,751 votes. His opponent Mian Asghar Ali secured 3,392 votes.
Syed Akhtar Hussain Shirazi was elected the new finance secretary with 2,628 votes, the opposing candidates: Azeem Akram got 1,682 votes, Nabeela Jaffri got 1,445 votes and Amina Ajmal secured 1,395 votes.
The turnout was low as only 7,171 lawyers out of 19,672 eligible voters turned out to vote.
Development projects
Lahore High Court passed two orders which set the provincial government back several months – emergency land acquisition for one of the projects was declared illegal and the other project was stayed on account of trees.
A full bench of the LHC had asked the government to justify emergency acquisition of land for the Elevated Expressway planned from Gulberg to Motorway II. It failed to do so.
The bench passed the order on 129 petitions against the project and set aside the government’s notification issued under the Land Acquisition Act 1894. The bench comprised Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza.
In the short order, Justice Shah observed that the court would issue guidelines on how the government should proceed on development projects.
The petitioners said that the government had declared the project urgent and was expeditiously acquiring and demolishing houses under Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act for the Rs27 billion worth Expressway Project. They said the government had not explained why the project was being built on an urgent basis. The court was asked to scrap the project.
The bench observed that education and health should be prioritised over urban development.
Counsel for the Lahore Development Authority replied that the Elevated Expressway was a public welfare project. He said it was a mandate of the Executive and that the LHC should not undertake a judicial review of the matter. He said those who had issues with the project could approach appropriate forums for legal reparation under the Punjab Land Acquisition Act and cases pertaining to compensation for land could be taken to civil courts.
Separately, a single bench of the LHC comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah issued a stay order on a Signal-Free Corridor planned from Liberty Chowk to Mozang (Qurtaba Chowk). The court has asked the government for its reply on the petition by March 6.
Petitioner Fahad Malik said that the government was going to hew many trees to construct the Signal Free Corridor. He said this would cause pollution.
He said the LDA had not obtained an NOC from the Environment Protection Department before starting construction.
He requested the court to declare the project illegal and requested a stay order against the project till the court reached a verdict on the petition.
‘Ill-timed’ casino visit
Last week, a lower court issued the Islampura SHO a notice for failing to register an FIR against National Cricket Chief Selector Moin Khan for visiting a casino. The court sought a reply from the SHO in this regard. Petitioner Advocate Saeed Zafar said that Khan had besmirched the country’s name by visiting a casino. “The team lost because of him,” he claimed.
Zafar said yet instead of taking action against him, the Pakistan Cricket Board was defending him.
He requested the court to direct the police to register an FIR against Khan. The national chief selector had issued an apology on February 26.
Separately, a single bench of the LHC last week dismissed a petition seeking action against the cricket team for its poor performance in the World Cup.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2015.
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