May 16, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1429

KARACHI, May 15: The Sindh High Court provisionally upheld on Thursday the provincial government’s ownership of the prime land worth billions of rupees on either side of the Super Highway.

An appellate bench consisting of Justices Azizullah M. Memon and Arshad Noor Khan set aside a single judge’s order restraining the government from interfering in the construction and business activities of Sapna filling station, opposite Baqai Medical Universtity, M-9, Super Highway, as it had rightly been allotted land by the National Highway Authority.

The single judge’s interim order was challenged by the provincial government and Advocate-General Dr Mohammad Farogh Naseem argued that the land belonged to the province and the NHA could not grant licence to an individual or concern for construction of a petrol pump or CNG station without is permission or payment of adequate compensation to it.

The NHA Rules, 2002, relied upon by the authority to claim the ownership of the land, had neither been approved by the federal government nor published in the official gazette. They did not exist in the eyes of law and were, in any case, repugnant to Articles 23 and 24 of the Constitution and they sought to deprive the province of its property without compensation.

In reply to the objection raised by the filling station’s counsel, Abid Zuberi, and the NHA counsel, Nisar Mujahid, that the points pressed in appeal were not agitated before the single judge seized of the suit, the AG copiously cited the case law to assert that a pure question of law could be raised at any stage.

He also contended that the parties were required to plead facts and not law and in its pleadings, the provincial government had categorically maintained that the land belonged to it and not to the NHA.

Besides setting aside the impugned order, the appellate bench directed the parties to maintain the status quo: the filling station would only conduct its existing business without carrying out any further construction or addition such as installation of a CNG station. It could only erect a canopy.

The provincial government was permitted to amend its written statement before the single judge in order set up a counter-claim and challenge the validity of the NHA rules and the parent law. The single judge was asked to decide the filling station’s suit within six months, excluding summer vacation.

Milk price

The AG, meanwhile, asked the city district government to constitute a committee representative of the various stakeholders to fix a fair price of milk in compliance with court orders. He requested the city government to convene a meeting of the committee promptly as the petition moved by the milk retailers’ association was fixed for hearing on May 21.

Phone call rates

A deputy attorney-general was issued a notice for May 22 in a petition moved by the Consumers Association of Pakistan against curtailment of the duration of local calls and imposition of the ‘Pakistan Package’ by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited. The association’s chairman, Kaukab Iqbal, claimed the reduced local call duration meant a 100 per cent increase in the charges. He claimed that local calls were free the world over while its rates were being enhanced in Pakistan.

About the package seeking payment of Rs199 for unlimited country-wide calls on NWD, the petitioner said it could not be imposed on unwilling consumers howsoever beneficial it was claimed to be. He also contended that the PTCL was not functioning as a public utility after its privatization. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, he further alleged, was hand in glove with the PTCL.

Family matters

All family matters should be heard and decided promptly and the execution proceedings in any case should normally be disposed within a month, Justice Khwaja Naveed Ahmed of the Sindh High Court directed the family courts on Thursday.

Dismissing a former husband’s petition against two concurrent decisions for return of his divorced wife’s dowry, the judge observed that all cases pertaining to maintenance of children, ‘khula’ (dissolution of marriage) and divorce as well as return of dowry articles should be tried and decided on a priority basis.

The trial courts should, if possible, fix these cases every week and should ensure that some progress was on every date. The party that creates hurdles and uses dilatory tactics should be asked to pay costs for causing delay.

Despite amendments in the Family Laws Ordinance made in the year 2002 requiring disposal of family cases within six months, the judge noted, the courts below had not taken any serious measures to expedite proceedings. Pointing at that considerable time was consumed even in execution of family court decrees. At least execution proceedings should not be adjourned for more than a week and should be disposed of within a month unless delay was caused by exceptional and unavoidable circumstances, he ordered.