KARACHI: SHC dismisses Haj operator’s plea for case quashment
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 4: The Sindh High Court dismissed on Monday a Haj operator’s petition for quashment of a criminal case against him for taking 117 Afghans to the pilgrimage on fake Pakistani identity cards and passports.
Contesting the petition, federal government standing counsel Mahmood Alam Rizvi said a charge-sheet had already been produced in a competent court and the trial was proceeding apace.
Besides the 117 Afghans taken for Haj by the accused Nawab Haj Group were arrested on their return to Pakistan. They have admitted that they travelled on fake documents. An application for acquittal, he said, could always be moved before the trial court.
Dismissing the petition, a division bench comprising Justices Amir Hani Muslim and Munib Ahmed Khan, however, asked the trial court to decide the case expeditiously.
BUS IMPOUNDED: Justice Sajjad Ali Shah ordered the SHO of the Jackson police station not to hand over the custody of a bus (No JB-1807) involved in a fatal accident.
The bus, which belonged to M/s Al Qayyum Enterprises overran its own passenger, Nazakat Hussain, a 38-year-old havildar of the Pakistan Navy, when he alighted from it on the Main Dockyard Road on May 17, 2007. His widow and three minor children have sued the owner and driver of the bus for Rs6.6 million in liquidated damages.
The leasing company which advanced credit for the purchase of the vehicle has also been impleaded as a defendant.
The plaintiff’s counsel, Nasir Maqsood, submitted that the ‘killer’ vehicle might be removed from the jurisdiction of the high court to frustrate any decree in favour of his clients.
The Jackson police, who have its custody, might be barred from transferring it pending the suit.
Issuing notices to the defendants for June 8, the court asked the police not to hand the bus over to anybody in the meantime.
WARRANT FOR DIRECTOR: The division bench headed by Justice Muslim issued a bailable warrant to ensure the presence of the Lyari Expressway project director.
He was asked in April and May to visit a shrine in the PIB Colony to ascertain whether the expressway could be diverted to save it from demolition.
The Qadri Trust has moved a petition through Advocate Shaukat Ali Shaikh for diversion of the expressway saying that the shrine of Pir Kifayat Ali Shah also hosted a mosque and a madressah.
The city district government offered alternative site and cash compensation to rebuild the shrine at a convenient place but the offer was rejected by the petitioner.
The court then asked the project director to visit the site and examine whether the expressway could be diverted to save the shrine. He failed to appear on Monday due to his preoccupation and sought more time for visiting the site and submitting a report as directed by the court.
The request was turned down and a bailable warrant was issued to ensure his appearance in the court.
PLEA DISPOSED OF: A division bench of the Sindh high Court comprising Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Muneeb Ahmed on Monday disposed of a petition for the recovery of a missing student, allegedly having links with Al-Qaida, observing that it was infructuous as he was in judicial custody in a case was pending before the trial court in Karachi, adds PPI.
Wasif along and five others were arrested in Lahore on May 12 and later handed over to the CID in Karachi. They are stated to be affiliated with the group of Qari Zafar, alleged to be mastermind of the US Consulate car bombing.
Sindh AAG Muhammad Sarwar Khan stated that Wasif was required in a case registered at the CID in Hyderabad and arrested in Lahore on May 12. Later, he was handed over to the Karachi police by the Punjab Home department.
He stated that the entire material on the basis of which the detainee was booked was placed before the ADJ of Karachi East who, after examining it, had remanded him in judicial custody. There was no other material with the investigation agency against the detainee to place before the court.
Applicant counsel Maqboolur Rehman opposing the AAG’s arguments said Wasif was arrested on November 11, 2006 in his house in North Karachi and shifted to Lahore, where police showed his detention. Wasif was falsely implicated in the aforesaid FIR and had been illegally confined since his arrest. He was innocent and not associated with any militant group.The SHC's division bench, after hearing arguments of both counsels, observed that Wasif was no longer a missing person but arrested by police in a case. Disposing of the petition, it said that the applicant could challenge his illegal detention and false implication in the aforesaid FIRs at an appropriate forum.
