July 05, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 1, 1429

KARACHI, July 4: A commission would be set up under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to look into illegal occupation of government land in the province in order to recover its possession, provincial Law Minister Ayaz Soomro told government law officers in the advocate-general’s office on Friday.

The AG’s office would take special care of the cases of illegal occupation and allotments pending in the High Court of Sindh to evict the illegal occupants and claimants. Informed by the law officers that certain officials did not promptly answer court summons and notices for submitting comments, the minister said he would issue instructions to all departments and functionaries to expeditiously respond to court notices and contest their cases diligently in cooperation with the law officers.

Mr Soomro, who is a member of the Sindh Bar Council from Larkana, also visited the SBC office and met the council’s executive chairman, A. Haleem Siddiqui. He was informed that the Punjab Bar Council was given grants by the provincial government through a budgetary allocation. The same treatment should be given to the SBC, which was a statutory representative organisation of the province’s lawyers and required financial help from the government to discharge its legal obligations, it was said.

Mr Siddiqui pointed out that though federal Law Minister Farooq H. Naek, who was also a member of the SBC besides being one of the 20 elected members of the Pakistan Bar Council, sanctioned Rs50 million to the PBC, he should not have ignored the SBC.

Mr Soomro said he would place the issue of budgetary allocations to the SBC before the cabinet and the chief minister so that a permanent arrangement could be made.