December 08, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 16, 1427

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LAHORE, Dec 7: Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over reports submitted by the city traffic police on fork-lifting of cars and directed the department to submit a detailed report within two weeks.

The court issued the direction in the proceedings of a writ petition through which Advocate MD Tahir has challenged the removal of cars through fork-lifts as an illegal act.

The reports submitted by the traffic police revealed that only eight forklifts had been in operation in the entire city and five of them were withdrawn after it was found that they were not registered with the Punjab excise and taxation department.

No forklift was operating in Gulberg, Cantonment, Defence, Shahdara and Saddar circles whereas one each was operating in Anarkali and Ichhra circles and two each in Model Town and Mughalpura circles, they said.

The police further stated that the vehicles found working without a registration were either withdrawn from the service or those using them issued warning to get the registration within a reasonable time. All such instructions were passed on to the traffic police by the Punjab IGP after the LHC had taken exception to the forklift operation, according to the reports filed by the City District Government Lahore’s legal adviser.

Advocate Tahir submitted that the traffic police reports were false as they had not shown the exact number of forklifts. Such reports, he stated, were prepared only to mislead courts from taking action.

The petitioner-lawyer submitted that the traffic police had given the operation of removing cars to the contractors who were committing irregularities as most of the vehicles were operating without being registered with the excise and taxation department. He was of the view that the removal of cars in the absence of an authorisation amounted to theft.

He submitted that the removal of cars from even no-parking areas could not be justified because the CDGL had failed to provide adequate parking lots to the motorists and the traffic police were simply unable to solve problems in the city of seven million people.

Advocate Tahir submitted that the worst irregularity in the matter was that the contractors were inflicting fines on offending motorists, contending that holding of summary trials and imposing fine was the job of magistrates.

ELECTION PLEA: A Lahore High Court election tribunal on Thursday directed the counsel of PPP leader Dr Syed Asrar Shah to submit if a lawyer was authorised to move superior courts in petitions which did not carry signatures of the petitioner.

The tribunal, comprising Justice Fazle Miran Chauhan, posed the legal question to advocate Mian Hanif Tahir, the PPP leader’s counsel, who filed a petition earlier without obtaining signatures of Dr Israr Shah and filed the second petition on Thursday seeking the restoration of the election petition.

The election petition, through which the PPP leader challenged Haroon Akhtar Khan’s election as a senator on the quota of technocrats, was dismissed for non-prosecution.

The tribunal has fixed Jan 13 as the hearing of the second petition for the restoration of the election petition.