May 29, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1429

KARACHI, May 28: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the advocate-general and the respondents for June 6 in a joint petition moved by nazims of 40 union councils in Thatta district against their alleged harassment by the police and the anti-corruption establishment to force them to dissociate themselves from the district nazim, Syed Shafqat Hussain Shirazi.

Advocates Mohammad Ashraff Kazi and Sajid Munir Shah appeared for the petitioners and a division bench comprising Justices Qaiser Iqbal and Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi allowed their plea that the petition be heard during the summer vacation.

Cited as respondents are the provincial government through the chief secretary, the home department, the inspector-general of police, the district police officer of Thatta and the anti-corruption establishment.

The petitioners alleged that since their rivals came to power at the provincial and federal levels after the Feb 18 polls, they were being threatened with ‘dire consequences’ if they continued supporting the incumbent district nazim. Police and anti-corruption establishment officials started raiding their offices and residences. No procedure was being observed and fake complaints were being pressed into service against them. They were being told to perform their duties as desired by the new MPAs and MNAs on the pain of registration of criminal cases.

Narrating specific instances, the joint petition said ACE officials raided the office of union council at Bello and maltreated its nazim, Syed Manzoor Hussain Shah. Important files, they alleged, were taken away without notice or receipt. The entire record of union council Darya Khan Sohu was removed on April 28 and the UC nazim, Haji Hassan Kalatri, maltreated. The union council of Makli, headed by Fida Hussain Shah, was also ransacked. The office of the union council of Schatu Chand was raided on May 5 and Nazim Mohammad Hassan Jakhro rudely interrogated by ACE officials. The Sondha and Jhirk union councils were also raided and their nazims insulted and humiliated.

The petitioners said the nazims approached the police for protection and registration of cases but failed to elicit a positive response from them.

They said they had inalienable rights under Articles 2-A, 3, 4, 14, 17 and 25 of the constitution to be treated with dignity and in accordance with law. The police and ACE conduct was also reprehensible under the Police Order and rules. Political rights and justice had been declared fundamental rights and they could not be denied their right to join or remain loyal to a party or group.

The petitioners requested the court to direct the police and the ACE to bring on record the inquiries or cases pending against them. The respondent agencies ‘should be restrained from arresting them or members of their families in false cases without permission of the court’.

The ACE, they prayed, should be asked to follow the procedure prescribed by Rule 6 (3) of the Sindh Enquiries and Anti-Corruption Rules, 1993.

Kidney Hill order reserved

A division bench consisting of acting Chief Justice Azizullah M. Memon and Justice Arshad Noor Khan reserved its order in the Kidney Hill park case after hearing Sheri counsel Rizwana Ismail’s arguments in rebuttal. The counsel claimed that the 62-acre kidney-shaped tract along Shaheed-i-Millat Road was always intended to be a public park and could not be converted into a housing colony.

The disputed area has long been a subject of litigation. With seven acres under the occupation of encroachers, it is in the possession of the SHC nazir pending the latest round of adjudication. The dispute goes back to the days when Karachi was the federal capital. The Overseas Co-operative Housing Society claims the entire area as the lessee of the Karachi Cooperative Housing Societies Union (KCHSU), which was transferred the land by the federal government ministry of housing, the original owner.

The parties, including the allottee society and the city district government, struck a compromise under a Supreme Court order last year which allocated 35 acres for a park, 20 acres for the claimant housing society and the rest of the area for amenities such as a hospital, a mosque and roads. The area of the huge Karachi Water and Sewerage Board reservoir was reduced to one acre.

Shehri challenged the compromise as being repugnant to superior court judgments against conversion of amenity plots.

Advocates Mohammad Farogh Naseem and Haleem Siddiqui represented the housing society, Amir Aziz Khan the KCHSU, Manzoor Ahmed the city district government, standing counsel Sofia Saeed the federal government and Additional Advocate-General Masood A. Noorani the provincial government.