KARACHI, June 29: Justice Sajjad Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court on Friday asked the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to furnish a copy of the Multan Fokker crash investigation report, if completed.
The order came in a suit instituted by the widow and (three) children of Dr Altaf Hussain, assistant professor and head of the Psychiatry Department, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, who was killed in the crash on July 10, 2006, at the age of 47. The plaintiffs, Dr Naheed Fatima and her three children, said the accident occurred due to the negligence of PIA and CAA. Based on the earnings of the psychiatrist from his service and private practice and his normal life expectancy, a sum of Rs154 million was demanded as damages.
The suit came up for hearing on Friday and the plaintiffs’ counsel, advocate Nasir Maqsood, said the defendants had ordered an investigation into the crash but no report was available till date. He requested the court to order a copy of the inquiry report.
Import duty
The Sindh High Court on Friday stayed recovery of over Rs11 million on the import of medicines for cancer, kidney dialysis, kidney transplant and other serious ailments by a multinational company.
The petitioner, Roche Pakistan, said it had been importing its research-based medicines from its principals, which were cleared at ‘zero rate’ customs duty under a notification of 2006 (SRO 567-1). The customs department, however, issued 33 recovery notices saying that the medicines had not been specified by the Central Board of Revenue as dutiable at the zero rate.
Roche counsel Aziz A. Shaikh argued that the notices were contrary to the government notification. Staying the recovery, a division bench consisting of Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Mrs Qaiser Iqbal decided with the consent of the customs counsel that the petition would be decided after preliminary hearing soon after summer vacation.
Compensation Scheme
The Sindh High Court on Friday asked the State Bank of Pakistan to file its comments on a petition challenging its new ‘compensation’ scheme for its officers by July 12.
Petitioner Mohammad Raza, a grade-5 officer of the SBP, submitted through Advocate Haider Imam Rizvi that under the scheme, any employee who relinquishes his right to pension and other retirement dues is to be given a 100 per cent increase in his salary.
The employees who want to retain their pensionary benefits would continue to get the normal increments at the maximum rate of three per cent. He said the scheme is not as innocuous as it seems on the face of it.
The catch in the scheme, he said, is that most of the employees nearing retirement would not like to give up their pension dues for a pay raise, howsoever high. On the other hand, the recently-recruited employees would rather opt for a 100 per salary increase than ensure a pension 25 or 30 years hence. The bank would thus be doubling the pay of a recently-appointed officer without incurring any obligation to enhance the salary of an old officer approaching retirement.
Advocate Rizvi contended that the scheme was unlawful and a bench comprising Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Mrs Qaiser Iqbal asked the SBP to answer the allegation by July 12.
Encroachments
A division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Mrs Qaiser Iqbal issued a notice to the City District Government Karachi and other respondents for July 6 in a petition seeking removal of encroachments in the Rizvia Cooperative Housing Society, Nazimabad.
Advocate Islam Hussain, a resident of the locality, said the provincial ombudsman and the high court passed orders for removal of the encroachments but the city government failed to take any action.
