Behind bars: Top CDA official nailed for contempt

The capital’s high court observed that Sindhu’s attitude was contemptuous.

ISLAMABAD:

In an unprecedented move a senior official of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was arrested from the court room on Monday and sent to Adiala Jail for contemptuous attitude during court proceedings.

“The court is fully convinced that Director General (Planning) Ghulam Sarwar Sindhu’s act is liable to punishment under section 5(1) of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003, for which formal proceedings are being ordered,” Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui said in his order.

During the course of hearing, when CDA officials submitted their reply in response to the show-cause notices issued to them for meeting Faisal Sakhi Butt, then chairman of the prime minister’s task force on CDA, in violation of IHC’s orders, the court took strict notice of Sindhu’s attitude.

The judge observed that the court had earlier warned the official to be careful but his demeanour was tantamount to contempt of court with the purpose of obstructing and prejudicing judicial proceedings.

On May 14, the same judge had barred Butt from entering the authority’s offices and directed the civic body’s officials not to interact with him in their official capacities. On June 20, the court had issued show-cause notices to the officials after media reports surfaced that they had met with Butt and assured him of their support.

Subsequently, on June 26, an apology tendered by the civic authority officials for meeting Butt in violation of court orders was rejected by the bench. The court had directed Sindhu, Municipal Administration Director Mansoor Ali Khan, Coordination Director Riaz Randhawa and Administration Director Haseen Raza Zaidi to submit written statements before the court on July 3.

On the hearing, the accused’s counsel, Raja Amir, contended that the officials had met with Butt in their ‘personal’ capacity to inform him not to interfere in CDA’s affairs.

CDA ordered to present details of illegally gifted plots

In a separate case, the same bench directed CDA to produce on July 13 the record of allotments made by Butt and asked for a written reply in response to a petition requesting the court to direct the civic body to produce the record of illegal allotments since 1999.

Former law minister Senator Babar Awan had filed a petition seeking details of commercial and residential plots, sites, shops, kiosks and restaurants auctioned, allotted or leased out without publication of proclamation in the press from 1999 to-date with the names of the purchasers and lessees along with the rates.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2012.