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KARACHI, Aug 5: A Sindh High Court division bench adjourned on Tuesday hearing of a writ petition challenging an ordinance promulgated in 2002 to allow regularization of structures raised in contravention of the building rules in Karachi on payment of fines.
The petition, moved by a number of non-governmental organizations and their individual members, says that the ordinance rewards violators of the building laws and rules at the expense of law-abiding, environment-conscious citizens. The then governor (Mohammedmian Soomro) had no power to issue an ordinance repugnant to the provisions of law and the Constitution. A huge amount of public funds is spent on the building control authority and other agencies despite their failure to discharge their obligations to the citizens.
According to the Sindh government, the law was made to put an end to long-pending litigation. A large number of cases were pending in courts, distracting the civic bodies from their basic functions and compelling them to spend sizable funds on litigation. The builders were, meanwhile, benefiting from their violations. A decision was, therefore, taken to regularize the deviations on certain conditions and payment of heavy fines.
Contesting the petition on Tuesday, Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan questioned its maintainability as the petitioner societies had no locus standi. Besides, the petition could not be heard behind the back of a large number of builders and plot-owners who had got their buildings regularized under the ordinance. They would all have to be impleaded as respondents, which was not practicable.
He cited a recent SHC judgment declaring that the organizations registered under the Societies Registration Act could only work for the promotion of science, fine arts and literature and for charitable purposes under the Act and could not agitate matters pertaining to the real estate.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, brought the judgment on its record and asked the AG to submit other material that supported his argument by August 26, when the petition would again come up for hearing.
HR ACTIVIST: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a writ petition moved against the arrest and detention of a human rights activist.
A division bench comprising Justices Zahid Kurban Alavi and Zia Perwez heard final arguments advanced by Deputy Attorney-General Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui for the federation and Advocates Syed Ghulam Shah and Noor Naz Agha for petitioner Leelan Thaunmal, the mother of detainee Krishan Sharma.
Sharma was arrested by the Rangers on March 21 and had been in detention since. His mother moved a petition and the Pakistan Army’s judge advocate-general (JAG) branch stated during the proceedings that the detainee was arrested for espionage under the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and was awaiting a field general court-martial under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952.
The whole controversy now boils to the question whether a civilian charged with spying under the 1923 Act can be tried by a military court under the Army Act or not?
Addressing the issue, the DAG submitted that once a civilian was accused of spying under the Official Secrets Act, he became subject to the Army Act, which was an overriding law, and the judicial process provided by it. The high court’s writ jurisdiction could not be invoked in favour of a person who was for the time being subject to any law relating to the armed forces.
Advocate Noor Naz Agha submitted that the Official Secrets Act itself provided for trial of persons accused of its violation. A civilian’s trial by a military court militated against the Supreme Court judgments in the Mehram Ali and Liaquat Hussain cases. No material had been produced against the detainee even in the high court in the course of habeas corpus proceedings. There was only a bland assertion on the record that Sharma was accused of spying and that he would be tried by a court-martial. Despite repeated court observations, the JAG branch failed to allow a meeting between the petitioner and her son, she submitted.
The bench observed that it would announce its order within a week. It allowed the DAG to submit arguments or material to controvert the written arguments tendered by the petitioner’s counsel.
APPEAL ALLOWED: The Sindh High Court set aside the conviction and sentence of an appellant, Habib Ahmed, jailed for life and fined Rs500,000 for carrying 26 kilograms of charas.
