PHOTO: AFP
The petitioner, Asif Nawaz, in his petition filed through his counsel Asif Bajwa, states that the speakers of the National Assembly (NA) and provincial assemblies had issued the production orders even though the custody of the accused legislators had been handed over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on physical remand by courts.
The petition seeks the nullification of the production orders issued for former president Asif Ali Zardari; his sister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) legislator Faryal Talpur; Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief and NA Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif; his son Hamza Shehbaz, who is a PML-N vice-president and the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly; PML-N MNA Saad Rafiq; and Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.
The petition states that production orders cannot be issued in presence of the court orders. Therefore, the production orders do not have any legal status, it continues.
The application pleads that the production orders issued during the physical remand of the accused be held null and void.
Groundwater case
The top court has summoned the Sindh chief secretary and advocate general in the groundwater case and called for the presentation of the draft of the legislation of the same in the next hearing.
Justice Umar Ata Bandial headed the three-member bench that heard the case.
It ordered the installation of flow meters across the country by September while ordering that the money collected in lieu of groundwater extraction be kept in a water conservation account.
The court observed that Rs480m had been collected so far while lauding the arrangements made in the Faisalabad plant, while instructing authorities to submit details of that plant in the court.
The court also summoned details of low-cost recycling plants form all the provinces.
Meanwhile, the additional advocate general of Punjab informed the court that all the provinces have agreed to the legislation. Justice Bandial responded that the law should be acceptable to all sectors including those involved in industrial production.
"The draft law should be improved with mutual consultations," he added.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan inquired as to why the Punjab government was not installing flow meters in 47 industries. "If private meters are installed, the government may object. Why then is the government not getting standardised meters installed?" he inquired.
He added that surveillance facilities including a monitoring room should also be set up along with the installation of flow meters. "Fear of legal action will ensue there is no meter tampering," he added.
While observing that all funds received from taxing groundwater extraction should be submitted in the national bank, it called for having meters installed in restaurants, mosques and public places.
The managing director of Lahore's Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) said that those found guilty of wasting water at their residence were being fined.
After asking the authorities concerned to summon their recommendations to save water, the court adjourned the hearing for an indefinite period.
Returning looted wealth
During a separate hearing, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khan Khosa on Tuesday observed that those who were convicted for corruption would have to pay the fine even if they were dead.
He said an earlier Supreme Court verdict stated that anyone guilty of corruption would have to pay the fine, even if they served additional time in prison. The extra time served in prison was punishment for not paying the fine, he added.
The CJP was heading a three-member bench, comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Yahya Afridi, that heard a case pertaining to sentence awarded to a former employee of the Balochistan government who had been found guilty of owning assets beyond his known sources of income.
Mohammad Kaleem Bhatti, a cashier in Quetta district commissioner's office, was given five-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs15 million by an accountability court on a reference filed by the NAB for having properties worth over Rs21.9 million, which were beyond his known means of income. The Balochistan High Court (BHC) also upheld the accountability court verdict.
The accused, however, chose to serve two years more in prison instead of paying the fine. The BHC, in a later verdict, returned his properties that were earlier confiscated by NAB for not paying the fine, citing the accused had served additional time in the prison. The bureau challenged the BHC decision in the Supreme Court.
During the course of proceedings, the CJP made it clear that the money earned through corruption must be returned even if the accused were dead. The BHC had misunderstood the SC judgement, he added.
The counsel for accused Kaleem Bhatti said his client had already served seven years in prison.
Upon this, the chief justice asked the counsel whether his client's properties bought from the corruption money had become legal after serving seven years in prison.
The court after hearing the case directed accused Kaleem Bhatti to pay the fine of Rs15 million. (With additional input from Agencies)
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ