April 03, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

KARACHI, April 2: Justice Syed Pir Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s application for acquittal on account of lack of evidence and improbability of conviction in the murder case of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) chairman, till April 7.

Advocate Shahadat Awan read out the testimony of nine prosecution witnesses to show from the record that the accused had nothing to do with the murder of his brother-in-law on Sept 20, 1996.

The counsel said the prosecution had failed to produce any direct evidence of Mr Zardari’s involvement in the murder conspiracy. It had relied on hearsay, which could not sustain conviction of the accused. For instance, two airhostesses were produced to depose that Mir Murtaza and Mr Zardari travelled by from Islamabad to Karachi in the first class of a PIA plane on Sept 16, 1996, but they neither exchanged greetings nor spoke to each other. The deposition was purportedly aimed at proving that they were hostile to each other but the inference was unjustified.

The counsel cited another prosecution witness to show that Mr Zardari had no ill-will toward Mir Murtaza. In fact, according to the witness himself, Mr Zardari offered Mir Murtaza financial help to do business in Syria in view of the cases pending against him in Pakistan.

A division bench of Sindh High Court, meanwhile, issued notice to the secretary interior ministry and a federal investigation agency director for April 8 on a petition filed against inclusion of name of Captain Tariq Mehmood Khan, the ex-chairman of board of directors of the Safe Air International, in the Exit Control List, agencies add.

Captain Tariq Mehmood approached the high court against inclusion of his name in the ECL. His counsel S.M. Iqbal Shah submitted that he was former chairman of the board of directors of the Safe Air International that failed to pay the central excise duty to the government in 1999-2000. The central excise police team raided the company’s office, took all record, including passport of the petitioner, and included his name in the ECL.

The counsel said his client had nothing to do with the Safe Air International as he had sold out the shares of company and his name was removed from the list of directors. He sought to declare inclusion of petitioner’s name in the ECL as malafide.

After hearing the arguments, the bench comprising justices Azizullah M. Memon and Arshad Noor Khan issued notices to respondents and adjourned the case till April 8.

PWD officials summoned

Two executive engineers of the public works department were directed to appear before the High Court of Sindh on April 16 in a case of non-payment to a contractor.

The order came from the same division bench while hearing two identical constitutional petitions filed by Javed Baloch, Director BB Enterprises and Mir Enterprises.

The petitioner maintained that he carried out maintenance and repair works at the bungalows in Bath Island, Civil Hospital, Lyari General Hospital and 182 residential units managed by the PWD in Shadman Town, North Karachi against which different cheques were issued. He said when he went to the treasury for encashment, he was told that the amount was not available and thus he could not draw cash. The petitioner maintained that he had been running from pillar to post since November 2005 to get the money spent on maintenance and repair works.

After hearing the petitioner, the bench noted that no one was present from the PWD and ordered the Executive Engineers of Division I and II to appear in person before the bench on April 16.

Missing record

The same division bench of the high court issued notice to Sindh Secretary Local Government and the City District Government Karachi for April 15 on a petition filed by Glaxo SmithKline, Pakistan.

The petitioner moved the court against the city government which delayed grant in change of name after Glaxo and SmithKline merged as it failed to trace the file from its record.

According to the petition, a famous pharmaceutical company owns two plots in Sector 25 of Korangi Industrial Area and a need for change of name in the property documents was felt when the Glaxo and SmithKline decided to merge after getting due permission by court.

The petitioner maintained that the company applied for change of name but on March 21, 2007, the respondents intimated them that a file of their plot was not available in their (city government’s) record. The city government demanded copies of the title documents, which were provided to them, but it failed to grant the application.

After repeated requests in vain, the petitioner moved the court.

The bench heard the initial arguments by the petitioner’s counsel issued notices to the respondents for April 15.