September 26, 2003	Friday	Rajab 28, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The Supreme Court gave on Wednesday two weeks time to the government ordering the attorney-general to apprise the court of the setting up of a Court of Appeal in the Northern Areas.

Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, who was heading the bench, observed that it was in his personal knowledge that the government was considering to establish a court of appeal in Northern Areas.

The people of the Northern Areas were granted certain legal rights after the Supreme Court judgment on May 28, 1999.

The issue was raised before the apex court by a bureaucrat, Pervez Iqbal, convicted on corruption charges. He was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The bench adjourned the case for two weeks with the directives to the attorney-general to apprise the court of the setting up of a Court of Appeal in the Northern Areas with a status of a high court.

The SC bench consisted of Sheikh Riaz Ahmed, Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.

The counsel, representing the petitioner, said that the NAB arrested Pervez Iqbal and was awarded 14-year imprisonment by an accountability court in the Northern Areas.

The punishment was later reduced to four years.

When he approached the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court his petition was rejected on the grounds that court’s jurisdiction did not extend to Northern Areas.

The counsel argued that Pervez Iqbal had undergone two and half years sentence, therefore, he was entitled to be released on bail.

The court did not pass any order on the bail application and adjourned the hearing for two weeks, when it would get latest information on the establishment of a Court of Appeal in the Northern Areas. The counsel stated that if people of Northern Areas had no right of appeal in the superior courts in Pakistan, then the NAB courts should not be established there.

Attorney-General of Pakistan Makhdoom Ali Khan represented the State while Deputy Prosecutor-General Jaffar Hashami and Assistant Prosecutor Khawaja Azhar appeared on behalf of the NAB.