December 02, 2006	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 10, 1427

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LAHORE, Dec 1: Justice Syed Zahid Husain of the Lahore High Court has directed the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) to file within two weeks parawise comments and reply in a writ petition seeking dissolution of the board because it has lost its utility after awarding the urban and rural property of the trust to claimants whose claims have long ago been verified.

The court issued a notice to the ETPB first on Sept 12, but it failed in doing so in 50 days of which the court took serious notice.

The writ petition was filed by advocate Dr Hamid Ahmad who stated that Section 10 of the Evacuee Trust Property Board Act, 1975, envisaged that the board would be dissolved after disposal of its properties. But the board authorities had failed in their legal obligation and were keeping the department alive decades after it had received claims on such properties which had been verified by the board also decades ago.

He submitted that the law was enacted in 1975 under the Evacuee Trust Properties (Management and Disposal) Act in the same year for the purpose that a board be set up to manage and dispose of the urban and rural evacuee property by way of allotting them to displaced persons. The law’s objective was identical to that of the Settlement Department set up in 1958 to rehabilitate refugees coming to Pakistan.

The board, the lawyer-petitioner submitted, was established for a limited purpose and should have long ago been dissolved. It could not be granted perpetuity, and the keeping of the board intact was in conflict with the spirit of the legislature. He submitted when the parent law stood repealed after meeting its objectives, the subordinate legislation could not sustain beyond a stipulated period.

Advocate Qamaruz Zaman, appearing on behalf of the EPTB, argued that the matter had been decided earlier by the Federal Shariat Court and the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court. But the petitioner objected to the plea showing the reported cases and submitting that the reported cases had no nexux to his stance.

UN mission: The Lahore High Court on Friday directed the DIG (Headquarters) to submit on Saturday (today) a report on the exclusion of police inspectors from the United Nations mission for Sudan.

Inspectors Khalid Mahmood Baloch, Mumtaz Karim, Syed Kalb-i-Abbas, Talib Husain, Muhammad Azam Khan and Farrukh Hafeez moved the LHC earlier in a writ petition on the same subject and six more police officials, including inspector Ghulam Shabbir and sub-inspector Zahoor Ahmad, followed the suit stating that their names were not included on the mission despite an earlier sanction.

They stated that they were required to report at the Chuhng police training school on Nov 6. But they were already engaged in a training course at Sihala on the appointed day and their names were dropped from the list in their absence.

Petitioners further stated that their absence was not willful as they were busy at another training to improve upon their contribution to the police department.

They requested the court to issue an order for the inclusion of their names on the mission.