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| July 24, 2007 | Tuesday | Rajab 08, 1428 |
KARACHI: SHC extends secretary’s bail
KARACHI, July 23: A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui on Monday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of the Sindh secretary of education till Aug 7.
Flight-Lt (retd) Sabhago Khan Jatoi, serving as the Sindh secretary for education, was earlier granted interim pre-arrest bail by the SHC against a surety of Rs500,000. He approached the SHC for anticipatory bail, showing apprehension that the National Accountability Bureau wanted to arrest him in a frivolous case of alleged accumulation of assets without known source of income besides involvement in corruption.
The SHC observed that despite several directions and allowing time, the government had not filed comments on the said petition. It repeated directions and order submission of Rs5,000 cost in the SHC Employees Benevolent Fund for the delay in submitting the amount. The matter was adjourned for Aug 7.
Sabhago Khan is being investigated by NAB, Sindh, for alleged involvement in corruption, corrupt practices and having assets in exercise of ostensible source of income.
His counsel Raja Quraishi stated that Sabhago Khan was in no manner living beyond his ostensible means, as his expenditure did not exceed his income. He rejected the allegation that the applicant had concealed movable and immovable assets in Pakistan and abroad.
The Sindh High Court on Monday issued notices to the attorney-general, the Ministry of Water & Power, the Wapda chairman and the KESC for Aug8 on a petition filed against continuous load-shedding in Karachi.
The SHC's division bench comprising Justice Moosa K. Laghari and Justice Muhammad Afzal Soomro was hearing the petition filed by Syed Iqbal Kazmi, seeking cancellation of the KESC privatisation and taking it back into government control.
The applicant filed a rejoinder to the KESC comments, saying the KESC had failed to provide uninterrupted electricity in Karachi as was promised at the time of privatisation. It was promised that the new administration would spend $300 million for improving the infrastructure to ensure the provision of uninterrupted electricity.
Despite all promises and getting Rs1 billion per month as subsidy from the federal government, the new management could not manage the electric supply system and control load-shedding. Now it was trying to put all responsibility on the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to save itself.
He said the aim of KESC privatisation had become ineffective as the continuous unannounced load-shedding in Karachi was disturbing the routine life and causing about Rs1.5 million loss daily to the industrial sector.
Earlier, on behalf of the KESC, Saleemur Reham, the authorised officer, submitted that no unannounced load-shedding was being carried out by the KESC. The shutdowns were done only for maintenance, which was approved by Nepra.
He stated that the KESC was bound to supply electricity to Karachi and for such purpose it was spending millions of rupees to improve the supply system. Two power generation plants were being set up in Korangi and Bin Qasim with a capacity of 220MW and 565MW respectively.—PPI
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