KARACHI: Sindh IG told to ensure safety of doctor couple
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 1: The Sindh High Court asked the provincial police officer on Thursday to ensure the safety of the doctor couple being threatened with murder as 'karo-kari' for marrying of their free will.
Dr Ghulam Mustafa Solangi and Dr Amnat Solangi, both over 40, belong to Moro, Naushero Feroze, which they fled for safety. Dr Amnat's brothers opposed their marriage and got a kidnapping case registered against Dr G. M. Solangi and his relatives.
Both the doctors are in hiding in Karachi while Dr Solangi's relatives are being harassed back home. The kidnapping case was earlier quashed but revived on the intervention of an influential local politician related to Dr Amnat Solangi.
The couple informed Justice Maqbool Baqar, who heard their application, that they could not pursue their remedy in the trial court because of the threat to their lives.
Advocate Syed Iqbal Haider, who appeared for the couple, submitted that an earlier direction to the advocate-general had not helped their relatives escape from the clutches of their tormentors.
The couple had been driven to attempt suicide because of the administrative indifference. The judge asked the PPO (formerly IGP) to ensure safety of the couple and provide protection to their relatives
TEACHER'S PLEA: A division bench, meanwhile, summoned the district education officer (female) of the city government on July 5 to explain why a teacher's salary had been withheld for years.
Mst Laiqa Sultana, teacher at the Government Girls School, New Karachi, alleged in her petition that she had not been paid her salary since November 2002. Her dues for the period 1993-2002 were also outstanding.
She held the district education officer (female) of the CDGK and the school headmistress responsible for the injustice done to her. The bench, which consisted of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Zia Perwez, asked the respondent officer to appear on July 5 to explain the position.
BAIL EXTENDED: Another division bench extended the interim bail granted to former Rice Export Corporation chairman Muhammad Ishaq Shaikh in an accountability reference in exercise of the court's constitutional jurisdiction.
The accused is alleged to have allowed export of rice at a price of $242 per ton against the prevailing market rate of $280. In complicity with former federal commerce minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, former federal secretaries Brig Aslam Hayat Qureshi (retired) and Salman Farooqui, and Riaz Laljee, he is charged with causing a loss of Rs67 million to the public exchequer by selling the commodity at a low price.
Opposing the bail plea, National Accountability Bureau deputy prosecutor-general Merajunnabi Ansari argued that the NAB Ordinance had barred the grant of bail to the NAB accused.
The bench comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Mohammad Sadiq Leghari observed that the court could grant the relief in its constitutional jurisdiction, which could not be taken away by the ordinance.
It allowed the conversion of the plea into a writ petition and extended the interim bail allowed to the accused. It also extended the deadline for the completion of the trial.
Appearing for the petitioner, Advocates M. Ashraff Kazi and M.Ilyas Khan earlier cited a number of superior court judgments allowing bail to NAB accused. They said their client was an aged person and the trial was delayed by the prosecution and not by the defence.
BAIL GRANTED: Justice Maqbool Baqar of the Sindh High Court on Thursday granted bail to Mustaneer Alam Burney, a former employee of the Malaysian high commission, subject to a surety of Rs150,000 in a passports case, adds PPI. He was arrested by the FIA on May 13 on the charge of trading in passports of different countries.
