October 17, 2008	Friday	Shawwal 17, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 16: A division bench of the Sindh High Court asked the National Accountability Bureau on Thursday to act in accordance with the law while conducting inquiries against suspects.According to petitioner Zawwar Shah, a retired registrar of properties, he was being probed by the NAB for certain transactions registered by him during his service. He explained his position to the bureau when it issued him a notice in writing. Despite his explanation, the bureau officials repeated the notice several times. The mental torture caused to him, he alleged, resulted in a stroke that paralysed him and a lot of money was spent on his treatment in the Aga Khan Hospital.

Representing the petitioner, Advocate Ghulam Qadir Jatoi maintained the methods adopted by the bureau were unlawful and violative of fundamental rights. The purpose was to harass a petitioner into making an incriminating statement.

NAB counsel Chaudhry Mohammad Iqbal said that while it was difficult to investigate white-collar crimes, the NAB issued only notices to find out the truth of the matter from the suspect himself first. However, he assured the court that no harassment would be caused to the petitioner.

The bench, which consisted of Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi, asked the bureau to refrain from making unfounded allegations and issue repeated notices merely on suspicion. The bureau should not violate the law or the Constitution in holding inquiries, it observed and disposed of the petition.

Special courts

Another division bench comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Arshad Noor Khan issued notices to the federal law ministry and the advocate-general in a petition seeking disbandment of special courts and disposal of cases according to the time-frame prescribed by the law and rules. Petitioner Iqbal Kazmi said special courts were repugnant to the constitutional guarantee of equality before law and the general law of land itself contemplated expeditious disposal of cases.

The bench allowed 10 petitioners, widows of federal government employees and retired employees, to withdraw their petitions for continued stay in the Garden Quarters, Karachi. Deputy Attorney-General Ashraf Khan Mughal cited a recent Supreme Court judgment saying that the accommodation meant for serving government employees could not be indefinitely occupied by their widows or retired colleagues. The petitioners sought to withdraw their petitions in order to approach the federal works ministry for relief.

Khalid Shaikh’s trial

The bench issued notices in another petition seeking repatriation of Khalid Mohammad Shaikh and his trial here. Claiming to be Khalid’s sister, petitioner Maryam submitted through Advocate G.M. Jatoi that her brother being a Pakistani citizen should have been tried in Pakistan if an offence was alleged to have been committed by him. She requested the court to issue a direction against the authorities responsible for handing over Khalid to the US authorities without adopting extradition proceedings and order his repatriation to Pakistan.

Property tax

Shaikh Zayed Trust was liable to pay property tax on its buildings because they had been rented out or put to other commercial use, the provincial excise and taxation department said in its comments on a petition moved by the trust and submitted through Assistant Advocate-General Adnan Karim Memon.

The trust said in its petition that it was a charitable organization engaged in public welfare and income from its immovable property was also used for public benefit.