SHC wants progress on lodge

It wants to see results before Nov 30 on two petitions filed by SHC Registrar.

KARACHI: Displeased with bureaucratic snags and deliberate delays, a division bench of the High Court of Sindh (SHC) directed the Sindh irrigation secretary on Tuesday to make “progress” before Nov 30 with respect to two petitions filed by the SHC Registrar on the mutation of two irrigation bungalows, one each in Larkana and Pano Aqil.

The bungalows are already in possession of the judiciary.

One is required to be construct as a Judges’ lodge in Larkana and the second already houses the civil courts in Pannu Aqil.

When the petitions came up for hearing, the secretary of irrigation was present along with Advocate General Sindh Muhammad Yousuf Leghari and AAG Sarwar Khan.

To a query from the bench, the secretary stated that he had recently assumed office. He submitted that the summary for the Larkana building has been approved by the chief minister and it was being processed according to the legal procedure.

The court disliked this reply and said that bureaucratic tactics must not be used in this matter

“Ultimately you have to give these [buildings] to the judiciary,” observed Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, heading the bench. “What is left [to do] now that the CM has approved the summary.”

To this the AG Sindh said that it would now go to a senior member of the Board of Revenue and then to the scrutiny committee. “This is the legal procedure, sir,” said the AG Sindh.

About the bungalow in Pano Aqil, the AG said that the summary has yet to be floated.

The bench then dispensed the secretary from attendance and asked him to show some “progress” by Nov 30.

The irrigation bungalow in Larkana is near the Circuit bench and would be converted into a lodge for judges posted to hear cases there. Meanwhile, the irrigation bungalow in Pano Aqil was acquired after the 2007 riots after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2010.