The Sindh High Court reserved on Thursday its order regarding the maintainability of an application seeking contempt proceedings against the provincial chief secretary for allegedly defying court’s orders regarding the formation of a commission to tackle the situation in Thar.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar and Shahnawaz Tariq, reserved their verdict after hearing the arguments on the contempt application.
Meanwhile, the chief secretary, Sajjad Saleem Hotiana, filed his report on the relief activities initiated by the provincial government in the drought-hit areas.
Case history
In May this year, the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) had filed a miscellaneous application under Sections 3, 6 and 12 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.
In his plea, Piler’s representative Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah said that the SHC, while considering a proposal to form a judicial commission to mitigate and resolve the issues faced by Thar, had directed the officers to suggest the composition and mandate of the proposed commission. He alleged, however, that the chief secretary had issued directives to form the judicial commission on his own.
The court was pleaded to punish the alleged contemnor for violating the court’s order. Taking notice of the attitude of the chief secretary, the two judges had suspended the operation of the notification regarding the commission’s formation and had also directed the chief secretary to submit a written explanation in this regard.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2014.
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