IMC officials plead ignorance over court zoo transfer orders (Islamabad city)

IHC directs handover of Islamabad Zoo to MoCC until further orders

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed two officers of Islamabad Municipal Corporation (IMC) Rana Tahir and Dr Bilal Khilji to submit affidavits regarding ignorance about the court directives for handing over administration of Islamabad Zoo to Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC).

IHC Tuesday directed to hand over the administrative control of Islamabad Zoo to the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) till further orders.

The court also rejected the unconditional apology of the Urghzar Zoo Director Rana Tahir and Deputy Director Dr Bilal Khilji in contempt of the court plea regarding animals’ shift to sanctuaries due to poor look after.
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IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah asked the officials of IMC why the court orders were not implemented regarding the shifting of animals.

The court, however, directed the two officers Tahir and Khilji to submit affidavits regarding ignorance about the court directives.

Pay evacuees

IHC on Tuesday barred the Capital Development Authority (CDA) from allotment of plots until it makes payment of compensation to indigenous people it evicts from the land it acquired for developing sectors.

IHC Chief Justice Ather Minallah was hearing the petition filed by displaced victims of sectors D-12 and 13.

Minallah remarked that CDA was awarding plots to influential people but was not paying a single penny to evacuees.

Further, the applicant’s counsel, Adnan Randhawa, told the court that two sectors including D-12 and D-13 were constructed on land acquired in Sangriyal, but the local people were still seeking compensation amount. At this, Minallah expressed displeasure and stopped the apex civic body from allotting plots until release of payment to affectees. He ordered CDA to resolve the matter at earliest.

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The case was adjourned for two weeks.

A petition has been filed against former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar for not taking oath as MPA.

Rawalpindi bench of Lahore High Court (LHC) will hear on Thursday the petition filed by one of constituency’s voters Raja Naseer through Farrukh Arif Bhatti Advocate. Chaudhry Nisar and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have been made respondents in the petition.

The petitioner maintained that Nisar won elections of constituency PP-10 but did not take oath of which he was constitutionally obliged. He lamented that his constituency was lacking representation in the provincial assembly since 14 months. The court should order Nisar of taking oath immediately as the development projects in the constituency have not been initiated due to absence of a MPA nor that the lawmaker grant was released for related area, the plea stated.

He further suggested that the seat should be declared vacant and ECP should organize by-elections on the seat if ex-minister refused to take oath.

Suspect acquitted

In another case, LHC Rawalpindi bench voided sentence of a suspect in three-kilogrammes drug possession case on false testimonies.

The case was presided over by the divisional bench comprising Justice Tariq Abbasi and Justice Raja Shahid Mehmood.

During the proceeding, Shanzaib Khan Advocate informed the court that his client, Laal Zameer, was arrested by Anti Narcotic Force (ANF) over drug possession but nothing was recovered from him. However, the force took Laal to F-9 police station and registered a false case, he added. The lawyer asserted that a court awarded sentence to the victim on false testimonies.

He pleaded the court to revoke suspect’s seven year sentence and fine of Rs3 million which was accepted. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2019.