KARACHI : SHC seeks report on city govt’s parking plaza
By Shujaat Ali Khan
KARACHI, Sept 13: The Sindh High Court asked the provincial heritage department on Thursday to submit a detailed report on the advantages and disadvantages of a parking plaza being constructed by the city district government at Shahabuddin Market, adjacent to Empress Market.
On a petition filed by the shopkeepers of Shahabuddin Market, a division bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Ali Sain Dino Metlo had asked the city district government to draw up a building design in consonance with Empress Market, which is a heritage site.
The city district government says that Saddar and Preedy Street are miserably short of parking space while a parking plaza planned at Jahangir Park had to be given up for environmental reasons. The new plaza was being constructed at Shahabuddin Market in harmony with the adjoining Empress Market.
The shopkeepers of the market would be provided shops in the plaza and a makeshift market had been set up in the nearby Lines Area, to which businesses could be shifted temporarily.
The shopkeepers were not, however, satisfied with the assurance and approached the high court, which granted them a stay against their being shifted without their consent. The shopkeepers say that the shops being temporarily given to them in the Lines Area are much smaller than their current premises, which would harm their business.
The bench asked the city government to ensure that the shops being allotted provisionally to the petitioners were at least two-thirds the size of their shops in Shahabuddin Market and adjourned further hearing to Sept 19.
Order reserved on bail pleas
A division bench of the Sindh High Court reserved its order on Thursday on the bail applications of the two accused in the PIA plane purchase reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau.
Former PIA director for corporate planning Rashid Hasan and Cyrus Darayus Minwala, a former representative of Cathay-Pacific – the airline that first leased and then sold six 747-300 Boeings – are facing trial in an accountability court for allegedly executing a deal for faulty planes. The ex-director is on interim bail before arrest while Mr Minwala has moved for post-arrest bail.
Representing the applicants, Advocates Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Arshad Mahmood argued that there was no evidence of a shady transaction, which passed through normal procedures. A court of the offshore Island New Jersey had already held that no criminal intent or liability was involved in the deal.
NAB deputy prosecutor-general Shafaat Nabi Sherwani argued that the reference had been filed after due investigation and a loss has been caused to the national airline by the accused.
A bench consisting of Justices Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Mrs Qaiser Iqbal reserved its order after hearing arguments on Wednesday and Thursday.
Mental Health Ordinance
A Sindh High Court division bench has directed the federal and provincial governments to file their comments on a petition seeking the implementation of the Mental Health Ordinance, 2001, by Sept 26.
Moved by the Pakistan Association for Mental Health through Advocate Faisal Siddiqui, the petition requests directions for the implementation of the 2001 ordinance in the following terms:
• The constitution of a federal mental health authority in accordance with Section 3 of the ordinance.
• The nomination of a board of visitors as envisaged by Section 4 of the ordinance.
• Appointment of a court of protection and magistrates.
The division bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Ali Sain Dino Metlo expressed its surprise about why the government has failed to issue a notification for setting up a court and appointing magistrates.
The government counsel appearing before the bench were asked to file their comments.
