January 25, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 24, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 24: The Sindh High Court adjourned on Tuesday the hearing of appeals moved Dr Akmal Waheed and his brother, Dr Arshad Waheed, against their conviction by an anti-terrorism court on charges of harbouring the outlawed outfit Jundullah’s activists involved in an ambush on the Karachi corps commander’s convoy.

The appellants claimed that they only provided medical treatment to the activists, which was their professional obligation. They refused visa offer by a US consulate officials and were booked in the case only after their refusal to visit the US. They were sentenced to an aggregate of 18 years’ jail each.

An SHC division bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Rehmat Husain Jafri, could not take up the appeals for paucity of time and adjourned the hearing to Jan 31.

IMTIAZ’S PLEA: A joint petition moved by former revenue minister, Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh, and his brother, Maqbool Sheikh, was adjourned to Wednesday by another division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Zia Pervez, at the request of their counsel. Raja Qureshi.

The petitioners maintain that a number of cases were being registered against them by provincial agencies as part of political vendetta unleashed by the chief minister. They have been granted interim pre-arrest bail in all cases.

The petitioners requested the court to pass an order against their arrest without its permission. They sought another direction for transfer of investigation into cases registered against them to the interior ministry. No new case should be allowed to be registered against them without court’s permission, they further requested.

Contesting the petition, Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada questioned its maintainability. The directions sought by the petitioners could not legally and be constitutionally granted. The court could not pass an order to exempt the petitioners from the due process of law in exercise of its writ jurisdiction, the law officer argued.

The division bench had fixed Jan 24 for arguments on the question of maintainability by Raja Qureshi, but adjourned the hearing to Wednesday at the counsel’s request.