KARACHI, Nov 15: The Sindh High Court stayed on Friday the handing over of former senator and provincial minister Islamuddin Sheikh’s sugar mill to the successful bidder in pursuance of auction proceedings conducted by the official assignee.
Kiran Sugar Mills, Rohri, was ordered to be auctioned by the SHC banking judge, Justice Zia Pervaiz, in execution of a decree against the former senator and in favour of his creditors. The official assignee conducted the auction and accepted the highest bid of Rs460 million.
The former senator questioned the auction by a petition filed through Advocate Khalid Jawaid Khan, saying the bid was much below the actual price.
As recently as July last year, he said, a Bankers Equity syndicate had fixed the forced sale value of the concern at Rs600 million. The auctioneer did not fix any reference or benchmark price.
A division bench, comprising Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Amir Muslim Hani, which heard the petition, stayed the handing over of the concern to the buyer and issued notices to the respondent for Nov 26.
BAIL PLEA & APPEAL: Another division bench, consisting of Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Husain Jaffrey, meanwhile, adjourned the hearing of the former senator’s bail petition to Nov 20. The petitioner, who was convicted of wilful default by an accountability court, said his health was deteriorating fast in detention. He was suffering from a number of ailments, which could not be treated in jail. Advocate Abdul Hafeez Pirzada appeared for the petitioner.
The bench, which is also seized of the former senator’s appeal against his conviction, heard arguments by Advocate Aitzaz Ahsan against the accountability court’s judgment. Further hearing was adjourned to Dec 3. Advocate Anwar Tariq is defending the judgment on behalf of the National Accountability Bureau.
The bench also continued hearing of the appeals of former excise minister Ismail Rahu and several wine merchants against their conviction by an accountability court.
FRUIT EXPORTERS: The Sindh High Court issued notices on a petition seeking a direction to the federal government to stick to its decision to allow kinnow export in cardboard cartons only.
The petition, filed by a citrus processors and exporters group through Advocate Khalid Mahmood Siddiqui, said a decision to discard wooden crates for kinnow export was taken in Oct 2001, but its implementation was deferred for a year at the request of exporters who said they had already crates for kinnow consignments.
The decision was based on a number of considerations, including the persistent demand of importers in European and other countries, uniformity of weight, and hazards posed by fungus, pathogenic agents and nails.
All concerned were informed of the government decision and a number of exporters arranged the import of corrugated cardboard sheets for kinnow cartons. At the eleventh hour when the export season was about to begin, an influential lobby has become active to get the government decision reversed. Some exporters have even managed to obtain phytosanitary certificates from the plant protection department for their consignments.
The petition said a large number of exporters would suffer a huge loss if the decision was changed.
Besides, Pakistan’s kinnow exports would further lose ground to competitors from other countries as almost all importers prefer cardboard to wooden crates.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sayed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, ordered that notices be issued to the ministry of food and agriculture and the Export Promotion Bureau for a date in office.
PASSPORTS: The Sindh High Court directed the passport office to issue passports to applicants within 30 days.
Ms Umme Kulsoom and her sister Jamila complained in their writ petition that they were bonafide applicants and needed passports for urgent travel abroad.
Their parents and brothers have all got Pakistani passports and there was nothing in their antecedents to justify any delay in granting their request. However, a Passport Office functionary demanded Rs20,000 as illegal gratification to issue them passports.
A Passport Office assistant director, who appeared before the division bench hearing the petition on Friday, in response to a notice, claimed that the petitioners’ applications had been duly entertained but he was awaiting the police inquiry report.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and Amir Hani Muslim, ordered that passports should be issued to the petitioners within 30 days.
