LHC seeks report on Shahdbagh fire incident

Justice Shah says matter of new LHC benches will be resolved rationally

LAHORE: Punjab Emergency Service (PES) Director General Rizwan Naseer last week expressed concern over the PES Lahore’s fire-fighting wing’s performance in the Shadbagh fire incident leaving six siblings dead. Naseer’s statement amounts to giving Lahore High Court (LHC) valid reasons to ensure action against those responsible for the delinquency.

The LHC has ordered the Lahore commissioner to submit a report on May 26 on a petition questioning the performance of two fire-fighting services in the city

Naseer has asked the district emergency officer to explain why the fire-fighting team of Rescue 1122 responded to the Shadbagh incident with a delay of 23 minutes.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also visited the bereaved family last week. The opposition has accused the government of failing to save the lives of six children.

Reportedly, all six children – three boys and as many girls – had died by the time rescue teams reached there.

LHC benches

The LHC’s administration seems serious in resolving the longstanding issue of setting up LHC benches in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Sahiwal, and Dera Ghazi Khan.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, the head of Special Committee for the Constitution of Benches of Lahore High Court, said on Saturday the matter of setting up LHC benches at divisional level would be resolved on the basis of relevant facts.

Justice Shah chaired a meeting at Judges’ Library to discuss whether LHC benches could be established in Faisalabad, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan.

The meeting had been called, in the first step, to consider demands of bar association representatives from Faisalabad. Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan are the other two members of the committee.

Faisalabad District Bar Association (DBA) president Malik Muhammad Ayub Sialvi, general secretary Rana Kashif; Jhang DBA president Syed Ali Raza Tirmizi, general secretary Amir Mehmood Shakir; Toba Tek Singh DBA president Ashgar Ali Chaudhry and Chiniot DBA president Chaudhry Riaz Ahmad Langrayal and general secretary Rana Qaiser Bashir attended the meeting.

Money laundering

A five-member LHC bench dismissed last week a 24-year-old petition accusing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of money laundering as non-maintainable.

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafri had filed the petition in 1991. He had accused Sharif of plundering the national exchequer. He had requested the court to hold an inquiry and take steps to bring back the black money. He requested the court to disqualify Sharif from contesting elections.

Signal-free Corridor

A full-bench LHC bench issued detailed verdict on the Signal-free Corridor project directing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to initiate an inquiry against Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and Environment Protection Agency (EPA) director generals for failing to comply with law while starting work on the project from Qurtaba Chowk to Liberty Chowk.

The bench directed the NAB to submit a report in two months to the registrar’s office.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2015.