The CDA ordered its closure on September 6, citing the management’s failure to obtain a completion certificate from the CDA before occupying the building. PHOTO: FILE
Cinephiles in the capital got some temporary reprieve as a local court granted the city’s only cinema permission to continue operating for another two weeks.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday allowed Mandiwala Entertainment to operate the CineFlex movie theatre in the Centaurus Mall till September 26 after suspending a closure notice issued to the management by the Capital Development (CDA).
Mandiwala Entertainment — which operates the multiplex on the fourth floor of the mall — had moved the court against the CDA notice which withdrew the no-objection certificate (NOC) under which it was operating.
The cinema was opened for the public on August 16. However, the CDA ordered its closure on September 6, citing the management’s failure to obtain a completion certificate from the CDA before occupying the building.
This issuance of notice to the Mandiwala Entertainment prompted them to knock on the door of the court, which, while admitting the petition, allowed its management to continue operating till September 26.
Earlier, while challenging the withdrawal of the NOC before IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, counsel for Mandiwala Entertainment Advocate Ali Zafar contended that on September 7, his client came to know that the planning directorate of the CDA had written a letter to the district administration informing it that the NOC for the cinema had been withdrawn as the owner of the Centaurus Mall had not obtained a completion certificate from the civic agency.
He argued that under the West Pakistan Cinematograph Rule 1962, the CDA had granted the NOC for the establishment of the cinema on August 15, and an annual licence valid till August 15, 2014 was issued on August 16 under the Motion Picture Ordinance 1979.
“My client has invested Rs200 million in the establishment of the cinema and opened it to the public after the issuance of the NOC,’’ he added.
He alleged that the CDA had issued the closure notice at the behest of a Rawalpindi-based competitor which, according to him, was a mockery of the constitutional rights of the citizens. He requested the court to declare the withdrawal of the NOC by the CDA illegal and restrain the authority from revoking the licence it had issued to the firm for setting up the cinema.
HSSC position holders’ petition dismissed
Meanwhile, a separate IHC bench dismissed a petition filed by two Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) students who had challenged the board’s criteria for selecting top position holders based on exam results.
IHC Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi rejected the petition filed by Saad Jan and Aabera Saeed, who had termed the criteria discriminatory.
On September 2, the IHC had restrained the board from holding an awards distribution ceremony for position holders which was scheduled for September 26.
The petitioners’ counsel, Advocate Raja Inam, maintained that Jan had secured 927 marks in the humanities group, but that Sara Noreen was selected as the top position holder despite having a lower total of 914 marks.
Similarly, Inam said Saeed had secured 1,010 marks in the science group and obtained third position, but Naveera Tahir, despite securing the same number of marks, was declared second, which is discriminatory.
Inam requested the court to direct the board to declare his clients as top position holders.
However, Babar Awan, representing FBISE, said that both students had retaken their exams to improve their marks.
According to the board’s policy, students who reappear in exams cannot be considered for top position holder slots, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2013.
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