KARACHI, Dec 3: An impugned order of the Sindh Ombudsman regarding the New Malir Housing Scheme was set aside by a division bench of Sindh High Court on Monday which held that the said order was passed “without lawful authority”.

The bench, comprising Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice S. Ali Aslam Jaffery, passed the order while allowing two identical petitions filed by five allottees of Malir Housing Project and Maxim Marketing challenging the impugned order of the Ombudsman (July 27, 2001).

The court held that “the matter in respect of which the impugned order was passed was subjudiced before different courts of law, and as such the jurisdiction of the Mohtasib was barred under section 9 (1) (a) of Sindh Act no. 1 of 1999”.

The court also directed the Maxim Marketing to refund the amount within six months to those allottees who are not interested in getting plots. The present order will not effect pending litigations.

It was the case of the petitioners that the MDA through a public notice offered residential plots in said scheme.

The Maxim Marketing was the agency used for publicising the project. Accordingly about 32,841 persons, including petitioners, applied for different sizes of plots and MDA issued allotment orders to all applicants.

The petitioners and other allottees deposited various instalments from time to time in respect of the plots allotted to them when the Provincial Ombudsman, directed the MDA not to recover instalments from allottees. The provincial Ombudsman on the basis of newsitems in newspapers regarding dispute over said land took suo-motu action and issued notice to respondents.

The Sindh Government, DC Malir, Maxim Marketing admitted before the Ombudsman that the land in question was owned by the MDA. It was also brought to the notice of Ombudsman that very subject on entitlement of land was already subjudice before SHC in a suit and as such he had no jurisdiction to entertain the matter. However, Ombudsman had refused to hear and to take into consideration the legal objections and continued to make inquiries.

SIPAH: Justice Shabbir Ahmed who is also the Administrative Judge (AJ) of Anti-Terrorism Courts Monday gave one week time to investigation officer to submit challan of an alleged activist of banned Sipah-e-Muhammad, Qasim Ali Zaidi, who was accused of being involved in sectarian killings cases.