January 20, 2006	Friday	Zilhaj 19, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 19: The Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation Labour Union requested the Sindh High Court on Thursday to order production of the Council of Common Interests record on the corporation’s privatization.

The respondents waived notice and a division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mohammad Athar Saeed, adjourned the hearing to Jan 25 for arguments by Advocate Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, who was busy before the Supreme Court.

The petitioners’ counsel, Rasheed A. Razvi, submitted that the record of the minutes of the CCI meetings regarding the KESC privatization was essential for a fair and just adjudication of the matter.

Citing a federal cabinet decision to revive the CCI under Articles 153-154 of the Constitution ‘after a lapse of seven years’ as reported in the press, the counsel said the CCI could not possibly have discussed the KESC privatization during a period it was not in existence. Yet the respondent Privatization Commission claims that the decision to privatize the KESC was taken by the CCI.

IMTIAZ’S PLEA: Justice Yasmin Abbasy, meanwhile, reserved order on an application for quashment of an anti-corruption case against former revenue minister Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh. The case involves disposal of 530 acres on the seashore along the Korangi Creek.

Representing the applicant, Advocate Raja Qureshi argued that there was no sanction by the competent authority for prosecution of the case. There was no evidence against the accused and the case had been instituted as part of the political vendetta unleashed by the provincial chief executive, he said.

Advocate Raza Hashmi submitted on behalf of the prosecution that the prosecution had been duly sanctioned as evident from a document produced by him. Mukhtiarkars Sabir Rajput and Abdul Hafeez Shoro had fully implicated the accused in their statements under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code. He said he had also produced air tickets, flight manifest and other documents showing that Agha Asghar, the ex-minister’s ‘frontman’, travelled abroad with him and his son.

The state counsel also argued that the accused should first have approached the trial anti-corruption court before moving the high court for quashment.

Another division bench asked the ex-minister recently to move the trial court in a murder case.