KARACHI: High court orders post office to refund savings
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 30: The Sindh High Court directed the Pakistan Post Office on Tuesday to refund its savings accounts holders the entire amount entered in their passbooks provided the entries were duly stamped and signed.
Disposing of a petition moved by depositors of the City Courts branch of the post office savings bank, mostly lawyers, a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Mrs Qiaser Iqbal, said the profit would, however, be payable only to those account holders whose deposits were duly recorded in the bank’s own ledger.
Agreeing with the postal department counsel, Nasir JR Shaikh, the bench remarked that it would not be just and reasonable to saddle the bank with interest on amount that were never actually received by it.
The post office scam came to light when its bank was unable to honour cheques drawn by some of the account holders.
It transpired that Izhar Husain Siddiqui, a retired assistant director who served the branch for a long period, had been receiving amounts from depositors on his own without making entries in the official register.
He retired in 1992 but continued to work till the detection of embezzlement of vast amounts of depositors’ money. Mr Siddiqui was booked and arrested but he died in prison before his trial.
Represented by Advocates M. Ilyas Khan, Rasheed A. Razvi and Rana Ikramullah, the petitioners said the post office was responsible for the amounts given by them.
It was liable to pay up not only the principal amounts but also the declared interest on them.
Advocate Nasir JR Shaikh said the petitioners should have ensured that the amounts paid by them were duly entered in the account books as well as their own passbooks.
The late Izhar Siddiqui had retired from service and used to sit in the veranda outside the main office. Complaints were received against him but the absence of any action indicated the complicity of ‘high-ups’ in his illegal banking operations.
The post office has already satisfied claims amounting to Rs 110 million and about Rs 180 million would have to be paid under the new court order.
The bench appointed a committee, comprising Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan and Advocates Rasheed Razvi and Nasir Shaikh, to look into the petitioners’ claims and forward them to the postal department for payment. Never before victims of a financial scam had their claims satisfied in so short a time, a petitioner said after the hearing.
HOSPITAL RECORD: Justice Mushir Alam, meanwhile, ordered the SHC nazir to obtain copies of all the documents and records sought by the plaintiffs from Aga Khan University Hospital and endorse his initials on the original record.
The order was passed in a suit instituted by the husband of a deceased patient, Tehseen Maqsood, on his behalf and on behalf of his three children. Claiming damages amounting to Rs 181 million, the plaintiff alleged that Mrs Waseem was admitted to hospital on Oct 25, 2005, for relapse of acute lymphoid leukaemia and the defendant oncologist and surgeon decided to carry out bone marrow test and remove a device implanted earlier for imparting chemotherapy and other treatment.
The plaintiff alleged through Advocate Nasir Maqsood that the surgical team failed to ensure the patient’s fitness for the proposed surgery.
The plaintiff moved an application in the suit contending that production of the necessary record, which is not accessible to him, is necessary to adjudicate the matter. Allowing the plea, the court asked its nazir to obtain copies of the record.
KWSB ENGINEERS: A division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Mohammad Athar Saeed, disposed of a petition moved by 13 assistant executive engineers working in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board in terms of an assurance that the appointment of field engineers in grades 17 and 18 on contract would not affect their promotion prospects. Advocate Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh appeared for the petitioners.
Pearl case: An Anti-Terrorism Appellate (ATA) bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC), comprising Justice Zia Pervez and Justice Rahmat Hussain Jaffery, on Tuesday put off hearing of three appeals in Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case till Aug 8, adds APP.
Earlier, Khawaja Sultan, a senior lawyer from Lahore on criminal side, filed power on behalf of main accused Ahmed Omar Shaikh replacing Abdul Waheed Katpar advocate.
As the counsel requested time to study the case, the bench put off hearing till Aug 8.
