20 November 2004	Saturday	07 Shawwal 1425

KARACHI, Nov 19: A division bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed on Friday a bail application moved by an accountability case accused but directed the trial court to conclude the proceedings within two months.

Applicant Khwaja Qadeer and four others, including former Pakistan Steel Mills chairman Usman Farooqui, have been charged by the National Accountability Bureau of causing a loss of about Rs 170 million to the PSM.

The applicant is accused in the NAB reference of supplying a big quantity of high carbon to the PSM at exorbitant rates much above the prevailing market price. He was arrested in December 2003 and had remained behind bars since.

Arguing for bail, Advocate Raja Qureshi submitted that over 10 months have elapsed since the applicant's arrest but the trial accountability court is yet to frame a charge against him. Bail could not be withheld as advance punishment and the applicant was entitled to the concession.

Contesting the bail, NAB counsel Shaukat Hussain Zubedi and Amanullah Khan argued that the applicant himself was responsible for delay in the trial proceedings. If he refrains from 'manipulating his absence from the trial court by feigning sickness' and does not resort to other dilatory tactics, the trial could be completed within a couple of months. Enough documentary and other evidence has been gathered by the bureau to justify a conviction, the counsel claimed.

Dismissing the bail plea, the division bench, which consisted of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and Khilji Arif Hussain, directed the accountability court to try the case from day-to-day and conclude the hearing within two months.

NOTICES ISSUED: The Sindh High Court adjourned on Friday the hearing of a writ petition against the holding of Sindh Bar Council elections under the newly-amended Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act.

Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan, who is ex officio chairman of the SBC and returning officer for its Dec 11 polls, appeared before a division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Amir Hani Muslim, and submitted that the notice issued to him was too short in view of the importance of the matter involved.

It could not be given a cursory treatment and required detailed but prompt hearing and disposal, preferably the same day. The AG said the final list of the candidates had already been drawn and published but no candidate or voter had come forward to raise an objection. The SBC election rules provided for objections but the petitioner had come straight to the court.

The petitioner's case seemed to be that he had acquired a vested right by merely filing his nomination papers and that he could not be deprived of his 'vested right' by the new ordinance, which enhanced the requirement of professional standing for the contestants and reduced the number of seats. However, a right could accrue to a candidate only after scrutiny of nomination papers, the AG submitted.

The bench observed that the AG was begging the question. The whole controversy revolved round the issue of vested rights and when could they rightly be said to accrue to a candidate. It pointedly asked the AG and Deputy Attorney-General Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, who represented the federation, about the starting point of an electoral process.

The AG said he would deal with the question of vested rights at length in his detailed arguments. He also stated that the ordinance was promulgated at the behest of the supreme regulatory body of the legal profession, the Pakistan Bar Council, and a notice should also be issued to it. The bench brought his request on record and issued notices to all the respondents for Nov 23.

PETITION DISPOSED OF: A division bench of Sindh High Court, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Maqbool Baqar, on Friday disposed of the petition against illegal arrest of a boy by the law-enforcement agencies on withdrawal by the petitioner's counsel, adds PPI.

Mohammad Akhtar alleged that his son Mohammad Siddiq, a student of Class VIII, was picked up by the personnel of law enforcement agencies from his house in Gulshan-i-Hadeed on Oct 6.

He said that police raided his house to arrest his elder son Mohammad Ishaq, for his alleged link with the banned militant organization. On failure for arresting Ishaq, he stated, they took his younger son and threatened that he would be released only if Ishaq surrendered to police.

When the matter was taken up, petitioner's counsel Maqboolur Rehman desired to withdraw the petition informing the court that detenue boy has returned to home on Nov 6. Granting request of petitioner, the court disposed of the petition.