RAWALPINDI, Jan 16: Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench here on Wednesday directed National Highways Authority (NHA) to submit reply in a petition filed by one of its employees seeking confirmation of job.

He alleged he had not been confirmed despite the orders of a federal minister.

Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah of LHC asked the respondent NHA to file their response in the court in two weeks. Assistant Director Saqlain Mehdi of the authority, moved the court against his employer saying he was not regularised despite the clear directions of the former minister NHA Shamim Siddique.

In another case the division bench of LHC comprising Justice Mohammad Muzamal Khan and Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah adjourned the hearing in the acquittal plea of Sardar Mansoor Ahmad Khan Laghari former MNA and a cousin of former President Farooq Ahmad Khan Laghari till January 23.

Earlier LHC had granted bail to Mansoor Laghari in a corruption reference registered with National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Mr Laghari was convicted by an accountability court in a case of facilitating a deal through his front men between a business firm Mehmood & Brother and Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan (USCP) for the purchase of a large quantity of meat that USCP bought unnecessarily according to the corruption reference. The court imposed a fine of Rs 30 million and awarded three years imprisonment in absentia while declaring him as an absconder.

Iftikhar-ud-Din then MD, USCP filed the corruption reference against Mr. Mansoor Lagahri on 18-02-1997 with NAB under sections 409 and 199 PPC.

Initially the reference was against the two men Mohammad Iqbal and Allah Yar owners of Mehmood & Brothers along with Sadiq Ali Khan former MD, USCP. Later NAB authorities found that the real owner of the firm was Sardar Mansoor Ahmad Laghari. Mr. Laghari alleged that his cousin president at that time falsely implicated him in this case. In his appeal against his conviction to the LHC he had said that he was out of country in the US for medical treatment which prolonged and he had to stay their for an extended period of time.

The grounds Mr. Laghari provided in his application are that any verdict given in absentia would be null and void according to the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).