KARACHI, Oct 18: Several petitions for recovery and production of ‘missing’ people were on Wednesday adjourned by a Sindh High Court division bench for hearing by another bench.
The petitions came up before a bench consisting of Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and the latter said he could not hear the petitions as he had appeared for the respondent federal interior ministry earlier in his capacity as deputy attorney-general.
All the petitions were referred to the chief justice for assignment to another division bench.
Advocate Noor Naz Agha, meanwhile, informed the bench that one of the detainees, estate agent Brahim Swaleh, has since been freed and has returned home. The bench asked her to make the statement before the new bench.
Among other detainees whose confinement has been challenged by their friends and relatives are: Jamhoori Watan Party’s Abdul Rauf Sasoli, Salim Baloch and Saeed Brohi; former student Affan Leghari; Munir Ahmed Mengal of the Dubai-based TV channel “Baloch Voice’ and Irfan Mehdi.
Another division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, extended the interim injunction granted in favour of the Sialkot Tehsil nazim, Khalid Siraj, against cancellation of his matriculation result by the Karachi board of secondary education.
The board cancelled the result for being bogus and the cancellation cost the candidate the nazim’s office.
A petition moved by Moulvi Iqbal Haider of Awami Himayat Tehrik through Advocate Sohail Hameed was adjourned by the bench ‘for ascertaining the correct position’ by the petitioner.
The petitioner complained that the Jamshed Town police officer (TPO) had ‘verbally’ refused him permission to distribute clothes among poor children to mark the country’s independence day on 27th of Ramazan.
He had been holding the function outside the Quaid-i-Azam’s mazar for three years.
BAIL DECLINED: Another division bench, comprising Justices Rehmat Hussain Jafri and Mohammad Athar Saeed, meanwhile, dismissed a bail application moved by an accused being tried by a Sukkur anti-narcotics court for possessing four kilograms of heroin.
The applicant said he had been in jail for about a year and a half without any noteworthy progress in the trial proceedings. He said he could not be kept in jail indefinitely before conviction and should be released on bail pending the trial.
Advocate Syed Ashfaq Hussain Rizvi, counsel for the Anti-Narcotics Force, argued that there was no provision for bail on statutory ground in the Control of Narcotic Substances Act. Relying on the trial court record, he said the case had to be adjourned many times due to the absence of the counsel for the accused defendant.
The defendant could not be allowed to take advantage of his own omission to ensure his counsel’s presence.
The delay, he agreed, has partly been caused by police failure to produce him but the defendant’s own role was fully contributory.
Dismissing the bail application, the division bench, however, directed the trial court to conclude the proceedings within two months and half.
