ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the chief secretaries of the Punjab and Balochistan to submit compliance reports by February 27 regarding implementation of court’s ban on serving meals at wedding receptions.

Led by the acting chief justice of Pakistan, Rana Bhagwandas, a three-member bench also ordered the chief secretaries to appear in person on the next date of hearing.

The order came when despite earlier directions only the chief secretaries of Sindh and the NWFP appeared on which the court took notice of the absence of the Punjab and Balochistan chief secretaries and issued fresh notices to them to ensure their presence on the next date of hearing.

Different cases of violation of apex court’s ban on marriage meal were being heard by the court, including those of the NWFP law minister, Malik Zafar Azam, and Director-General Health Sindh Dr Hadi Bakhsh who is a close relative of federal minister Liaquat Jatoi.

During the last hearing, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry issued a 15-day deadline to all the four provinces to notify monitoring and implementation bodies across the country. He also ordered to issue notices to violators of the ban.

Malik Zafar Azam tendered unconditional apology through his counsel advocate Syed Iftikhar Gillani.

However the bench will decide about the acceptance or rejection of the apology in the next hearing.— Staff Reporter