March, 29 2005	Tuesday	18 Safar 1426

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, March 28: The Lahore High Court on Monday allowed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) the only chance to come out with a firm view on the contention of federal minister Faisal Saleh Hayat that his trial in a reference be transferred to another accountability court because he had no confidence in the court trying him at present.

The court adjourned for Wednesday the hearing of two petitions moved by the eight directors of Shah Jewna Textiles Mills, Jhang, including the minister and his wife, when NAB deputy prosecutor-general Waqar Mir submitted that the Punjab prosecutor-general had desired to address the court on “this important question of law.”

However, the court remarked that the prosecutor-general should come prepared on March 30 because it wanted to dispose of the petitions as soon as possible by not allowing adjournments without cogent reasons.

The petitioners had assailed the orders of an accountability court which had directed the interior ministry to place the name of Faisal Saleh Hayat on the exit control list. The petitioners submitted that the accountability court had not issued legal notices to the directors of the mills for such an order which was passed at a time when the minister was abroad on an official visit.

The LHC had granted stay against the accountability court’s direction on March 17 and issued notices to the NAB to explain the direction to the ministry.

Another petition sought the trial to be shifted to another accountability court stating that the chief justice was empowered to do so under Section 16-A of the NAB Ordinance.

Women rights: Women are being deprived of their legal and social rights because laws enacted to safeguard them are not being implemented.

This was a consensus emerging out of a women’s day event which the Lahore High Court Bar Association had sponsored to observe the International Women’s Day on Monday with bar president Fakharunnisa Khokhar in the chair.

Ms Khokhar, however, said women should take an initiative to come forward to secure their rights. She said had the laws been taken seriously by the authorities in translating them into legislation, women would have achieved their rightful place in society.

MPA Misbah Kokab said certain women legislators had already initiated a bill in the Punjab Assembly on the basis of a judgment of Fakharunnisa under which she had held that a man would be responsible for the maintenance of a suckling even after he had divorced his wife.

Advocates Rabbiya Bajwa, Shabana Ahmad, Shaista Qaisar, Ghazala Khan, bar finance secretary Firdaus Imtiaz, vice-president Dr Akmal Saleemi and secretary Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry also spoke at the ceremony.