Notice issued to EC, federal attorney on MQM's plea
By Shujaat Ali Khan
KARACHI, June 16: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan, the federal and provincial attorneys and other respondents for June 28 in a writ petition moved by three Muttahida Qaumi Movement candidates
in the May 12 bypolls for one provincial and two national assembly seats.
The petitioners, Mohammad Abid Ali Umang, Nisar Ahmed Panhwar and Yousuf Munir Shaikh, requested the court to set aside the EC order annulling the May 12 by elections and direct it to declare them elected from NA-240 and NA-246 and PS-127, respectively, on the basis of the by poll results. They also moved an application for cancellation of the fresh by election schedule announced by the ECP for the three constituencies.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Zia Perwez, directed that notices be issued to the EC, the advocate-general, a deputy attorney-general and other respondents in the main petition and the accompanying application by post, by bailiff and by a courier service for June 28. All the party and independent candidates who contested the by elections for the three seats have been cited as respondents.
Arguing the petitioners' case earlier, Advocate Abul Inam submitted that the ECP decided the matter ex parte with the MQM candidates participating in the proceedings and their rivals boycotting them.
The commission relied on police and returning officers' reports, which said the balloting was conducted in accordance with the law. According to the reports, there was no grave illegality or violation of the provisions of the Representation of People Act (RPA).
"The balloting proceeded in a fair and smooth manner and no clash took place at the polling stations", the lawyer submitted when the bench referred to incidents of violence that resulted in loss of life.
The incidents occurred well beyond the polling precincts and had no bearing on the voter turnout, he said. In any case, he argued, the EC had no authority to annul the polls in exercise of its summary powers under Section 103AA of the RPA, particularly after it had constituted tribunals to adjudicate electoral disputes.
UDESHI CASE: The Sindh High Court quashed on Wednesday an accountability reference against former land utilization secretary Ramesh Udeshi. The reference, being tried by an accountability court, alleged that in collusion with former chief minister Abdullah Shah and his successor as land utilization secretary, Ali Sher Shaikh, accused Ramesh Udeshi allotted four acres of land at Malir to an applicant in violation of the law.
The allotment was made at much below the prevailing market rate and the accused caused a loss to the public exchequer for personal gain. The accused moved the accountability court for acquittal as even according to the prosecution case, he was not involved in the allotment.
The allottee, Khoob Chand, approached CM Abdullah Shah for allotment of a plot of land. The CM asked him to put up a summary in favour of allotment to the applicant. He wrote a summary and the (former) CM leased out four acres to Khoob Chand at Deh Rehri, Malir.
The allottee, however, sought an alternative site as the land allotted to him did not serve his purpose. The CM again asked him for a summary and he put up another summary.
The CM allotted another piece of land, which too was not acceptable to the applicant. Finally, when he had left the job and had been replaced by Ali Sher Shaikh, the land involved in the reference at Deh Safooran (Gulistan-i-Jauhar) was allotted to Khoob Chand.
The lease, the petitioner submitted, was thus initiated and finalized after his transfer as the land utilization secretary and he could not be held responsible for it. Meanwhile, all questionable allotments made by the CM had been referred to a committee headed by former justice Syed Abdur Rehman Shah for fresh scrutiny.
For detailed reasons to be recorded later, a division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and M. Mujibullah Siddiqui, allowed Mr Udeshi's petition and ordered quashment of the impugned reference insofar as it involved him. Advocates Ismet Mehdi and Arshad Hussain Khan appeared for the petitioner, who had already been acquitted in a number of cases.
NOTIFICATION SUSPENDED: The Sindh High Court suspended on Wednesday an Auqaf Department notification issued on May 22 to reconstitute the provincial zakat committee.
The order came on a writ petition moved by members of the committee. Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan showed the division bench seized of the petition an official order withdrawing the impugned notification but the petitioners' counsel, Raja Qureshi, insisted that it still held the field.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and M. Mujibullah Siddiqui, fixed June 22 for hearing of the petition and suspended the operation of the May 22 notification till that date.
The petitioners, including Abdul Khaliq Farooqui, Dr Capt Liaquat Ali Umrani, Hafiz Ismail and Ms Mehjabeen Shehryar, submitted that the provincial zakat committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali of the Sindh High Court by a notification issued on December 9, 2003.
Without any intimation and without stating any reason the provincial government issued another notification on May 22 to reconstitute the committee. They requested the court to declare the May 22 notification void and restore the notification of December 2003. The bench issued notices to the respondent for June 22 and ordered that the May 22 notification would remain suspended in the meanwhile.
