06 June 2004	Sunday	17 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

MUZAFFARABAD, June 5: Four committees of the AJK Legislative Assembly were revived by Speaker Sardar Siab Khalid in line with what a notification issued by the assembly secretariat said 'unanimous opinion of the House'.

"In consideration of the unanimous opinion of the House, the notification issued on Dec 19, 2003 stands revoked to the extent of the Public Accounts Committee, Finance Committee, Rules and Privileges Committee and Assurances Committee from the afternoon of June 2," said the notification issued here on Saturday.

On Dec 19, these four and eight standing committees of the House were dissolved by the speaker on the grounds that the assembly had recommended so.

However, the move caused anguish among the ruling party legislators who were heading the committees, particularly PAC chairman Sardar Tahir Anwar.

Raising the issue of dissolution in the recently concluded session of the assembly, Mr Anwar had argued that the committees were elected by the house for five years and (therefore) the speaker's notification of Dec 19 was unconstitutional and ought to be cancelled.

His viewpoint was endorsed by Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, Chaudhry Masood Khalid, Nahid Tariq and Raja Naseer from the treasury benches and Chaudhry Abdul Majeed and Sardar Mohammad Hussain from the opposition.

The speaker then announced that in view of the unanimous demand from both sides, the committees would be revived.

"If a wrong decision was taken by me due to a wrong interpretation of the opinion of the House, I will not stick to my that decision," the speaker had said.

However, Saturday's notification did not give retrospective effect to the revival of the committees from the day of their dissolution, but from the day "when the House gave a unanimous opinion on the matter," that is on June 2.

JUDGMENT: A single member bench of the AJK Supreme Court, consisting of Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Taj, suspended here on Saturday the operation of a high court judgment regarding the Kashmir Liberation Cell.

The KLC employees had filed a petition in the high court, praying that the government be advised to frame service rules in the institution so as to regularize their services.

In its judgment delivered in November last, the high court directed the government to frame rules within six months, failing which the payment of salaries to the employees from the consolidated fund would become unlawful.

The government filed a petition for leave to appeal in the apex court against the high court order, which was granted.

A stay order for the suspension of the impugned high court judgment till the disposal of the appeal was also granted.

Chaudhry Ibrahim Zia did not seriously oppose the application, but prayed that through this order the salaries of the non-applicants should not be stopped.