Contempt plea: Court grants a week’s time to release funds for bone marrow transplant

Court told cost of Raza's treatment and that Rs4,400,000 will be provided within in a week

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered the health additional secretary on Tuesday to release funds and submit report in a week, for the bone marrow transplant of 16-year-old Obaid Raza.  A two-member bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Agha Faisal, was hearing the contempt of court plea against the non-payment of funds for the bone marrow transplant. A report submitted by health additional secretary said that National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) has been assigned for Raza's treatment and Rs4,400,000 will be provided for it within in a week.

The court, expressing annoyance over the late provision of money, remarked that late treatment of the patient is akin to not providing him treatment at all. The government promises will all go waste if the patient dies due to the non-availability of treatment. The court ordered the release of funds in a week's time.

The petitioner had maintained that the government was in contempt of court orders that had been earlier given for the release of funds for Raza's treatment.

Security of school vans

The same bench issued notices on Tuesday to the Chief Secretary, Transport Secretary, Education Secretary, Sindh IG, Additional IG and others regarding the security arrangements in public buses and school vans. The petition was filed by Advocate Mansoor Tariq, a social worker.

 

Advocate Mansoor argued that the Transport Secretary has given a statement that parents should send their children to school on their own responsibility. Transport Secretary said that there was no relevant authority to enforce the security measures.  The Sindh government had issued the notification for security arrangements in school vans and public buses on May 14,, 2014. No steps had been taken in this regard despite the issuance of several notifications. The court, issuing notices to authorities, adjourned the hearing.

Plea against sentence

The SHC ordered the trial court on Tuesday to revisit the verdict awarded to convicts involved in the target killing of lawyers and the murder of a police official. A division bench, comprising Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto and Justice KK Agha, was hearing the plea against the sentence.

The sentence was awarded by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) to Mohsin Baloch and Abid alias Kallu, both of whom had confessed to their crimes before the judge. The convicts killed the lawyers Salahuddin and Ali Raza at Malir on March 24, 2012. The criminals also killed police official Parvez Iqbal during a police encounter.

They also injured police officials Khan Muhammad, Sabir and Ismail in cross firing. The trial court had imposed a fine of Rs70,000 and 10 years' imprisonment on each of them.

Police officials' murder

The same bench directed the counsels for parties on Tuesday to appear in court with full preparation for arguments on March 19 over the plea against life imprisonment awarded to the target killers, Ubaid K2 and Nadir Shah, involved in the murder of two police officials.

The convicts had killed two police officials in the jurisdiction of Soldier Bazaar police station. A special ATC awarded both the criminals life imprisonment.

Police funds' corruption

The SHC directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor to appear in court with complete preparation on next hearing of the plea against ten-year imprisonment awarded to former Additional IG Tanveer Ahmed Tahir for corruption and fraud in the police funds.

A bench of SHC heard the plea against the ten-year imprisonment awarded to Tahir. Farooq H Naek appeared in court as the counsel for Tahir. NAB prosecutor sought time for preparation. Naek argued that NAB was not giving arguments therefore his client should be released, at least on bail. The court ordered the NAB prosecutor to appear in court with full preparation on March 11 and adjourned the hearing. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2019.