IHC issues notices to CDA, govt over crematorium in capital

Petitioner says Hindu residents of the city have to travel to Attock, Umerkot or Peshawar for funeral services

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: A Hindu resident of the federal capital has gone to the high court, urging it to intervene in having a crematorium built for the minority community in the city.

The court subsequently issued notices to the federal government and the civic agency of the city to file their responses.

This was directed by a single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, who heard a petition filed by Ashok Chand.

In his petition, Chand noted that under the Constitution, the rights of minorities and non-Muslims have been protected.

Represented by Advocate Yasir Chaudhry, Chand contended in his petition that over the past two years, three of his family members had passed away in the federal capital. He added that instead of burning the bodies as per Hindu customs, the bodies had to be buried in Rawalpindi.

He went on to argue that the state has yet to provide any place for cremation or setting up a Shamshan Ghat for burning bodies a per their custom and a temple for worship in the federal capital. He went on to quote Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and articles from the Constitution.

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He added that the lack of temple in Islamabad for worship is an “open violation of fundamental rights”.

Furthermore, he said that the 158 Hindu families living in the federal capital are forced to take their dead to either Attock, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa or even to Sindh for performing the final rites of their loved ones.

The counsel said that it was difficult to transport corpses out of the city in the hot weather as they start to rot apart from the extreme expense.

The petitioner listed the federal government through the secretary of the Religious Affairs ministry and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) as respondents.

Justice Aurangzeb, after hearing the arguments, issued notices to the ministry and CDA and adjourned the case for two weeks.

Shuttle case

An accountability court has summoned 11 former officials of the CDA, including its former chairman Kamran Lashari at the next hearing in the case of illegal contracts awarded for a shuttle service and allotting land in the Diplomatic Enclave.

The suspects are expected to be indicted next month.

On Monday, Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik presided over the case and handed over copies of references — filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to all 11 suspects.

In the reference, NAB said that during investigation, they found that the former CDA officials, in connivance, collusion and collaboration with the accused contractor awarded the contract for development of the visa-seekers facilities and shuttle service in the Diplomatic Enclave on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) process for five years at an annual rent of Rs100 per square yard for the 4.5 acre plot in a non-transparent manner without auction.

Moreover, the contractor refused to pay the annual rent, the contract was handed to the same contractor through a “tailor-made and pseudo process of advertisement at reduced annual rent Rs2 per square yards for seven years.”

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“Therefore, accused CDA officers in connivance with each other misused their authority in rendering illegal and undue benefit to the accused contractor,” the reference said.

Three cops charged in Rawat rape case

Even though a DNA test has cleared them and the victim has been stating that they are not her attackers, the Rawalpindi police have submitted a partial charge sheet in the court for the Rawat rape case charging the four men, including three officers, for kidnapping and raping a 20-year-old.

Last week, DNA test results from the Punjab Forensic Agency (PFA) in Lahore showed that the four named suspects in the case including Rashid Minhas, Amir Shahzad, Muhammad Azeem and Muhammad Naseer. Three of the suspects are police officers.

The police charge sheet also excluded the PFA report which had cleared the suspects of rape charges.

Moreover, the victim had told the court that the suspects named in the first information report were not the real suspects and that their names had been included by the police themselves in order to protect the actual culprit who too is a police officer.

District and Sessions Judge Masood Akhtar Waraich adjourned further hearings until June 29 when the four suspects are supposed to be indicted.

Police sources say that the forensic reports were not received when the charge sheet was prepared, adding that a complete charge sheet is expected to be presented soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2019.