August 23, 2008	Saturday	Sha'aban 20, 1429

LARKANA, Aug 22: The Larkana Circuit Bench of Sindh High Court issued notices to Sindh secretary of criminal prosecution and services, registrar of anti-terrorism courts, and 11 recently appointed special public prosecutors to file comments over a petition challenging their appointments.

Abdul Rehman Bhutto, a practicing lawyer, stated in the petition that he and two others were appointed as special public prosecutors following an advertisement on Nov 23, 2007 and subsequent interviews on Jan 4, 2008, through notification issued on Feb 13, 2008. The petitioner joined as special public prosecutor on Feb 16, 2008 at the anti-terrorism court-II Larkana. The secretary criminal prosecution through notification bearing No.SO (G) /CPSD/6-7/2008,770 dated Aug 12, 2008 which he received through fax stated that his services were dispensed with.

The petitioner was removed from the services without any notice and reason, he stated. The concerned secretary issued new notification and appointed 11 special public prosecutors for anti-terrorism courts in Sindh without observing formalities and proper procedure in violation of natural justice, stated the petitioner.

He stated that the secretary criminal prosecution was not competent to dispense with the services of the petitioner without show cause notices. The appointments of 11 special public prosecutors were illegal, said the petitioner and requested the court to declare illegal his removal from the service and appointment of 11 others on the plea that the secretary criminal prosecution did it only to accommodate his favourite people.

The petition would come up for hearing on Aug 28 before the division bench.

FRAUD: The accountant of the Larkana chapter of the Sindh High Court Bar Association has fraudulently withdrawn Rs1 million from the main branch of National Bank of Pakistan, Larkana and escaped.

This was stated by Civil Lines SHO Yasin Tagar on Friday. He said that the accountant had affixed fake signatures of three bank officers and the account holder.

The finance secretary of the bar association, Shamsuddin Abbasi, said that accountant Sumair Umrani escaped from Larkana city after committing the crime on Thursday. The fraud exposed only after the bank management contacted him on Friday for verification, he said.

According to Mr Abbasi, Umrani used two leaves of the cheque book of Asad Abro, a resident of Rehmatpur, who had opened his account for getting loan for a rickshaw. He wrote two cheques Rs500,000 each, put fake signatures of a bank officer on them and went to the cashier for handing over the amount. The cashier in good faith gave him the amount without checking the account’s status, bank sources said.