KARACHI: Status quo in Indian property case ordered
By Shujaat Ali Khan
KARACHI, Oct 16: The Sindh High Court ordered on Thursday that status quo be maintained in respect of a bungalow once housing the Indian high commission till Oct 22 when a suit by its new buyer would come up for hearing.
The bungalow and the 3883-square-yard plot (No 63-63/1, Old Clifton) it is built on are claimed by the Indian government. It housed the Indian high commission till it moved to Islamabad and was occupied by the Indian consulate, which ceased to function in 1992. An Indian airline official, who looks after the IHC assets in the city, saw renovations being carried out at the bungalow and reported the matter to the Indian government, which lodged a complaint with the government of Pakistan. An inquiry was instituted and the police came into action.
According to a plaint filed by Syed Ali Baqir Naqvi, claiming to be a rightful purchaser of the property, through Advocate Raja Qureshi, the plot was leased out by the defunct Karachi Municipal Corporation to Parmanand Kundamal in January 1946 for residential purposes for 99 years. The plaint alleges without elaborating that it came into possession of Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, who entered into a sale agreement with Lateefan Begum, wife of Roshan Din, for a total consideration of 28,610 rupees, seven annas and nine paisas in 1952. Subsequently, he executed two general powers of attorney in favour of Lateefan Begum.
Lateefan Begum sold the plot to Manzoor Hussain in 1964 for Rs350,000 and the latter to Karim Ghulam Hussain Jiva in 1979 for Rs600,00. Plaintiff Baqar Naqvi says that he entered into an agreement to buy the plot from Mr Jiva for Rs33,976,500 and paid a token amount of Rs2 million on Oct 1. He invited objections but none was received. The police, however, started harassing him and raided his residence at Sunset Boulevard, DHA.
The plaintiff requested the court to uphold and protect his right to acquire, hold and dispose of the property. In the meanwhile, the police be restrained from harassment.
Justice Khilji Arif Hussain directed that notices be issued to the defendant Sindh government and police in the suit and the stay application for Oct 22. In the meantime, no coercive measure be taken to disturb the status quo.
TASMAN SPIRIT: The Tasman Spirit has been reduced to wreckage and is no longer a ship liable to arrest or be proceeded against under the Sindh High Court’s admiralty jurisdiction, the shipowners’ counsel argued on Thursday.
Advocate Mohammad Naeem was contesting a suit instituted by several insurance companies, which insured the transportation of 67,000 tonnes of oil to the Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL), under the high court’s admiralty jurisdiction. He pressed for the withdrawal of the court’s arrest order of early September. In fact, both the Tasman Spirit and the Endeavour should have been released simultaneously with the release of their oil cargo and its delivery to the PRL, he submitted.
The counsel argued that while the Tasman Spirit was not liable to arrest for being ‘wreckage’, the Endeavour could not be arrested as it and its owners were not involved in any negligence. The vessel was brought only to take the wrecked ship’s oil cargo aboard it. The court could not go beyond the registration documents of the two ships, according to which they belonged to different owners and were registered in two different countries (Greece and Malta), the counsel asserted.
The assertion was contested by the plaintiffs’ counsel, Barrister Qazi Faez Isa, who said ‘beneficial’ ownership of the two vessels was what really mattered and it obviously meant going beyond the legal ownership record. The plaintiffs had made the allegation and adduced evidence to substantiate it. It was now for the defendants to prove that the beneficial owners of the two ships were different. He contended that their evasive denial amounted to admission. He again pointed out that the two ships and their owners had appointed the same attorney and law firm to defend them in the suit proceedings.
Meanwhile, according to a report submitted by the SHC official assignee, the entire oil consignment transferred from the Tasman Spirit to the Endeavour had been delivered to the PRL, the consignee, under a high court order. Both vessels were now totally empty.
Justice Ataur Rahman, who is seized of the plaint, adjourned further proceedings till Oct 20.
CBR STAND CHALLENGED: A division bench comprising Justice Roshan Essani and Justice Gulzar of the Sindh High Court ordered issuance of notices to respondents in a petition against the Central Board of Revenue on Wednesday, add agencies.
The petition was filed jointly by the trustees of the Quaid-I-Azam Aligarh Scholarship Trust (QAAST), S. Sharifuddin Pirzada, Justice (r) Z. H. Channa and Liaquat H. Merchant, after they were allowed by the chief justice of the SHC to do so.
The order for the issuance of notices came after the bench heard Liaquat H. Merchant, grand nephew of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Further hearing would be held in due course.
The petition involves an important question of public interest as other NGOs, including societies, welfare agencies and trusts, have all been debarred from investing in National Savings Schemes (NSS) because they are classified and treated as institutional investors and prohibition against investment in Special Savings Certificates (SSC) has been extended to trusts, welfare agencies and societies, thereby reducing their income on investments and a consequent reduction in their welfare activities in education, health and humanitarian development sectors.
The QAAST was established through an SHC judgment dated Oct 24, 1984 by which the trustees were appointed and directed to grant scholarships to needy and deserving students for graduate and post-graduate studies in Pakistan.
The QAAST funds, amounting to Rs10.8 million, came from the estate of the Quaid-i-Azam and were directed to be invested in Khas Deposit Certificates (KDC). During the period 1985-2003, the funds swelled up to Rs18.5 million and the trustees granted scholarships to the tune of Rs18.236 million to needy and deserving students.
The investments in the KDC and SSC could not be continued as the CBR under its ruling declared that the investors were not government securities and that trusts and other NGOs were not eligible to invest in the NSS, but were at liberty to invest in other government securities, NIT Units or Mutual Funds approved by the Securities Exchange Commission and State Bank.
The petition challenges the CBR ruling that a trust cannot invest its funds in NSS and that it and the NGOs were not considered to be government securities.
DRUG CASE: Another SHC bench comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery on Thursday dismissed bail application of a woman accused of having possessed 5,936 kgs of charas. The bench directed the concerned trial court to decide the case within three months.
Khalida, wife of Muhammed Akram, the absconding co-accused, had prayed for bail in two cases registered against her and husband by the Anti-narcotics Force (ANF), Clifton.
According to the prosecution, the woman was arrested in Chamra Chowrangi, Korangi Industrial Area on April 17, 2002 while travelling in a Suzuki pickup carrying 85 kgs of charas.
Later, on her pointation, police recovered 5,936 kgs of the contraband and 28 bottles of foreign liquor from her house. She was then booked under section 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14,15, 19 and 37 of the CNS (Control of Narcotic Substance) Act.
The accused had sought bail from a trial court which turned down the plea following which she moved another bail applications which were dismissed on Thursday.
M. Ilyas Khan and Muhammed Farooq advocate, appearing for the applicant, contended that besides recovery, no evidence was available against the accused/applicant.
The bench, after hearing the counsel for state, admitted Khalida to bail against a surety of Rs300,000 in one case — possession of 85 kgs of charas — and dismissed her bail plea in the other case — possession of 5,936 kgs of the contraband.
