0
KARACHI, June 29: The Sindh High Court on Friday restrained a gas company from installing a CNG pump and station in a residential area. A petitioner submitted through advocate Syed Ishrat Ghazali that the CNG station was being set up on plot number B-169, Block A, Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan, North Nazimabad, in a thickly populated area and constituted both public and private nuisance.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has issued a licence to respondent concern without ascertaining that the plot on which the station was intended to be set up was situated in a residential neighborhood. The stipulation in the licence that a pump could not be installed in a residential locality had been violated both by Ogra and the respondent.
The petitioner, Mumtazul Hasan Rizvi, resident/owner of the bungalow next to the plot, said the respondent first acquired the residential plot without disclosing that it was intended to be used for commercial purposes. The respondent company obtained a no-objection certificate from the Master Plan Group of Offices of the City District Government Karachi, which also acted in contravention of the rules.
Permission for the demolition of the old residential bungalow on plot number B-169 was obtained from the Karachi Building Control Authority by concealing facts. The pump would not only infringe his easements rights but would also endanger the public health, safety and environment.
Advocate Ghazali submitted before a division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Mrs Qaiser Iqbal that an illegality could not be legalised by departmental permissions and NOCs or by lapse of time. The bench restrained the respondent company and transferred the petition to the bench initially seized of it.
Petroman employees
The Sindh High Court on Friday asked the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology to pay off the remaining 50 per cent of the dues payable to the defunct Petroman employees from June 2005 to June 2006 by July 3.
Over 200 employees submitted through advocate Moin Azhar Siddiqui that their services were first transferred from Cosmats to Petroman and were subsequently declared surplus when the institute was shut down. They said they had not been paid their salaries for the last one year and a half. Several employees favoured by the authorities had been retained.
The bench ordered that the employees who had already received 50 per cent of their dues should be paid the balance by July 3 while those who have received no amount so far should be given half the amount due till July 18.
Pre-arrest bail
The Sindh High Court granted pre-arrest interim bail to a former chief executive officer of the Faisal Cantonment Board in the sum of Rs5 million till July 13, and issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau for that date.
Ms Najma Saleh submitted through advocate Aamir Raza Naqvi that NAB issued her a questionnaire in connection with an alleged embezzlement in the funds of the Faisal Cantonment Board, which she served as the chief executive from 1989 to 1992.
She made a reply and the matter rested there when she received a letter from NAB suggesting a plea bargain. She said she was not heard or issued a notice or given details of the misappropriated amount.
She had no role in the alleged embezzlement but could be arrested by the bureau as she could not enter a plea bargain without having committed any offence.
