Contempt of court: LHC waives fine on PIDA MD

Main case relisted; next date of hearing to be fixed by registrar’s office.

LAHORE:

Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday waived a Rs50,000 fine imposed earlier on the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority (PIDA) managing director for not filing a reply in a contempt of court petition.

PIDA MD Zahid Saeed tendered an unconditional apology on Thursday and requested for the waiver. He said he would be more careful with court proceedings in the future.

The main case, however, was relisted, and the next date of the hearing would be fixed by the registrar’s office.

The judge had imposed the fine on a petition filed by Muhammad Nadir Khan and 10 other PIDA officials.

Their counsel, Advocate Tipu Salman Makhdoon, had submitted that his clients were contractual employees in PIDA who had filed a petition for regularisation of their services in 2012.

The court had issued a notice to the respondents on December 28, 2012 and allowed the petitioners to continue in their jobs.



Makhdoom submitted that following court orders, his clients had approached the PIDA MD, Zahid Saeed, but he had not allowed them to mark their attendance. Makhdoom said the employees had also not received their salaries since January.

He said they had filed several applications to the respondent urging compliance of court order. He had prayed the court to issue directions for initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Saeed.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2013.