SHC accepts plea for urgent hearing

Petitioner says he had earlier withdrawn petition under pressure

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday accepted the request for early hearing of a plea seeking the restoration of petition regarding investigation against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and former president Asif Zardari’s sister, Faryal Talpur, in alleged corruption of 90 billion rupees in developmental projects in Larkana.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar also issued notices to involved parties.

Petitioner, Bashir Abbasi, maintained that respondents hadn’t submitted replies on the petition since six years. The funds allocated for development in Larkana have been  misappropriated through money laundering, said the petitioner alleging that during the last 11 years Sindh government did nothing but money laundering. He said Talpur was allegedly responsible to oversee the funds for developmental projects in Larkana. Alleging that funds for development project was gobbled up, he requested the court to order investigations and ask the Sindh government to submit details of the allocations made for developmental projects from 2008 till now.



Justice Mazhar remarked that you had withdrawn the petition then why do you want to fix it for hearing again. Abbasi told the court that Talpur had his brother kidnapped and threatened him to withdraw the petition. Justice Mazhar said that first court will issue notices on restoration of petition for hearing to involved parties, rest of the accountability will be done later. Court accepting the petition for urgent hearing, issued notices to involved parties for Dec 12.

Gas load-shedding

The same bench, while hearing a petition against the load-shedding at CNG stations in Sindh, directed the lawyer for the petitioner to review the replies submitted by the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC).

A report submitted by SSGC said a decision had been taken to suspend gas supply from December 1 till February 2019 due to shortage of gas . Petitioner’s lawyer maintained that when there was no load shedding in Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa why it was there in Sindh. He said that SSGC was avoiding to come up with actual reasons. The court had demanded an answer from SSGC regarding load-shedding in the previous hearing.  Justice Mazhar asked the lawyers for petitioner to first go through SSGC’s comments and adjourned the hearing till Dec 19.

Action ordered

The SHC, expressing its discontentment over non-implementation of its orders for action against the use of residential land for commercial purposes, ordered the Karachi Mayor, Lines Area Development Authority (LADA) project director, Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and others to carry out joint action within 15 days.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan heard a petition o Friday, where counsel for SBCA maintained that SBCA was neither responsible nor had the power to clear encroachments.

Justice Khan remarked that the land in question did not have encroachments but illegal structures. The SBCA counsel said that the authority did not have powers to conduct action on public land.



Justice Khan inquired whether SBCA was helpless when it came to removal of encroachments on public land. He directed them to take help from the police and clear up the illegal structures, adding that if it does not fall under the domain of the police then seek assistance from the Rangers. But, he ordered that the land must be cleared. The SBCA counsel maintained that some of the areas were under the operational domain of Lines Area Development Authority. On the other side, the counsel for LADA maintained that the institution had earlier cleared the mess of commercial structures but people had again resorted to illegal use of the land. The LADA doesn’t have the legal authority to seal or demolish the shops.

The petitioner’s counsel on the other hand maintained that the people behind encroachments were politically influential therefore no one dares to carry out any action against them. He said that since the authorities were not implementing 2012 court orders, contempt of court proceedings should be initiated against the authorities.

Teachers salaries

The SHC has fixed the petition regarding non-payment of wages to teachers of different schools being managed by the district municipal corporation in Karachi, for hearing on December 12. The court directed lawyers of the parties involved in the case to come prepared.  A two-member bench heard the petition of Afia Rehman, Javed, Muhammad Irfan along with seven affected teachers. Petitioners’ lawyer maintained that 240 teachers of different schools have not been paid their wages since August 2015. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2018.