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| June 12, 2005 | Sunday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1426 |
SHC suspends distribution of PDF prizes
KARACHI, June 11: The Sindh High Court barred on Saturday distribution of prizes to the winners of the impugned Punjab Development Fund (PDF) lottery till June 23, the next date of hearing of a writ petition challenging the raffle. Since a lot of time, expenditures and efforts had gone into conducting the lottery as urged by the Punjab advocate-general, the draw scheduled to be held on Friday was allowed but giving away of the prizes amounting to Rs75 million was stayed by an SHC special vacation bench comprising Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Amir Hani Muslim. The bench viewed the PDF lottery, which promises Rs25 million as the top cash prize, ‘apparently un-Islamic’.
The petition, moved by Sajjad Ahmed of Larkana through advocate Asif Ali Razzak Soomro, was transferred to the principal seat at Karachi from the Larkana circuit court on June 3. It was briefly heard on June 9 when the bench declined to pass a restraint order but issued notices to the respondents for Saturday.
The petitioner said he bought 31 raffle tickets of Rs25 each, out of which three pairs carried the same number. The International Brands Limited, dealer who sold the tickets, refused refund and he decided to move the court in the public interest. His counsel said the lottery was un-Islamic in the light of superior court judgments as it did not guarantee safety of initial investment like the prize bonds scheme.
Punjab Advocate-General Aftab Iqbal Chaudhry pleaded on Saturday that he received the court notice on Friday and could not study it or prepare a brief or obtain instructions from the provincial government. He submitted that in ‘the circumstances of the case’, the draw might be allowed and the matter be adjourned to another date when he would advance arguments on legality of the lottery on the touchstone of Islamic injunctions and also on the issue of SHC jurisdiction in the matter. The Bank of Punjab’s counsel Shaikh Mansoor Ali seconded the submissions and pointed out that the prize distribution process would take a fortnight. The petition would not be rendered infructuous by flux of time, he argued.
Advocate Asif Soomro said that according to Federal Shariat Court’s judgment in Shaikh Mushtaq Ali’s case, pronounced in 1989 and upheld by the Supreme Court’s Shariat appellate bench in 1992, all lotteries, raffles, etc in which public is lured to invest for prizes are repugnant to the Islamic injunctions, even if their ultimate objective is charitable. He pressed for an interim stay order against the draw.
Assistant Advocate-General Abdul Jabbar Lakho supported his argument and said a commercial bank operating under the Banking Companies Ordinance could not associate itself with lotteries under the law and a federal attorney should also be issued notice in the petition. The SHC did have jurisdiction in the matter, particularly because the cause of action arose in the province of Sindh, he argued.
The bench observed in its order: “Prima facie, it appears that the scheme in question cannot be sanctioned in view of the cited judgments. Similarly, we are of the view that the issue of jurisdiction vis-à-vis issuing writs by this court to the functionaries of another province cannot be sustained as the honourable Supreme Court has declared the law which we are bound to enforce in terms of Article 189 of the Constitution, particularly as the PDF lottery has been floated in the entire country”.
Setting June 23 as the next hearing date by consent, the bench also issued a notice to deputy attorney-general to represent federal government in the matter.
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