18 November 2004	Thursday	05 Shawwal 1425

KARACHI, Nov 17: The Supreme Court has dismissed two provincial government appeals against the Sindh Service Tribunal order allowing petitions of two former information directors against their removal from service for embezzlement.

Former directors Khalid Sitai, Ziauddin Agha and Shamsul Haq Memon were proceeded against for allegedly misappropriating public funds amounting to Rs25 million by placing bogus advertisements in dummy newspapers.

The embezzlement was detected by the chief minister's inspection team in 1995. They admitted the allegation in an inquiry conducted by the inspection team but said the impugned advertisements were released on the then CM's orders.

The directors were sacked and the charges against them were referred to the anti-corruption department for prosecution. An anti-corruption court, however, acquitted them under Section 249- A of the code of criminal procedure for lack of evidence.

They moved the Sindh Service Tribunal against their dismissal from service on the basis of their exoneration by the anti-corruption court and the tribunal allowed their plea.

The Sindh government preferred an appeal against the SST order before the Supreme Court. Additional Advocate-General Dr Qazi Khalid Ali submitted that criminal and departmental proceedings for the same offence were independent of each other and exoneration in one did not necessarily lead to acquittal in the other. The government, meanwhile, withdrew its appeal against one of the respondents, Shamsul Haq Memon.

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Rana Bhagwandas and Hamid Ali Mirza decided the remaining appeals against Khalid Sitai and Ziauddin Agha on the principle of consistency and dismissed both the appeals without going into merits last Friday.

It observed that the three respondents were charged with the same offence in the same transactions. The allegations could not be separated and dropped against one of them and pressed against the rest.