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LAHORE, Dec 26: The Lahore High Court asked the Punjab Health Secretary on Wednesday to look into allegations against a district health officer and submit his report within 20 days.
Petitioner Abdul Ghani informed Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmad through Advocate M.D. Tahir that five criminal cases had been registered and were pending investigation against Dr Farrukh Hussain Mirza, DHO, Narowal. They involved charges of corruption and rape. However, instead of taking any action against him, the health department transferred him and posted him at a better station (Gujranwala). The petitioner said while ordinary government servants were generally suspended in such a situation, the DHO had been rewarded with a better posting, with greater chances of promotion.
Justice Ijaz asked an additional advocate-general to hand over a copy of the petition to the health secretary for probe and report within 20 days under intimation to the high court.
SCIENTISTS CASE: The hearing of a Nov 5 habeas corpus petition for production and release of certain allegedly detained scientists was again adjourned on Wednesday because the judge seized of it, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, was busy interviewing candidates for the posts of additional district and sessions judge along with Justices Mian Nazir Akhtar and Karamat Nazir Bhandari. It will now be heard on Dec 28.
RUBINA’S APPEAL: An intra-court appeal filed by Rubina Ansari, the only woman to have been condemned to death in Pakistan’s judicial history, for registration of a case against Sargodha Factory Area police officials who caused her and her sister Shakila’s abortion during investigation was on Wednesday returned to her counsel for affixation of court fee stamps worth Rs1,000.
The Lahore High Court office rejected counsel M.D. Tahir’s plea that no court fee was recoverable from a pauper prisoner condemned to death. Rubina says that murder cases be registered against the offending police officials but her petition was dismissed by Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday on technical grounds. She has assailed the dismissal order in her appeal.
