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KARACHI, Nov 7: A provincial government appeal against a single judge’s judgment and decree requiring it to pay as a tenant over Rs3 million as rent to the Islamic Education Foundation Trust, which owns all buildings and land comprising the Islamia College campus, was adjourned to a date in office by a division bench of the Sindh High Court for paucity of time on Friday.
The trust instituted the suit after an SHC division bench allowed a petition seeking reversion of the properties comprised in the college complex in 2005. The bench observed that while the provincial government could take over educational institutions under the Martial Law Regulation 118 of 1972, it could not take over the properties attached to them. In view, however, of the differences among the trustees, the bench appointed the official assignee of the court to look after the properties.
The bench also directed the government to deposit a sum of Rs1 million with the nazir as security for payment of dues owed by the education department for running the nationalised ‘government Islamia colleges’ in the trust’s properties. The amount was deposited by the education department and a subsequent application to withdraw it was dismissed.
The acceptance of the trust’s petition was challenged by the provincial government in the Supreme Court, which upheld the impugned judgment but observed that the rent could not be determined in exercise of the writ jurisdiction.
The trust filed a suit, which was decreed by a single judge as both the plaintiff trust and the defendant department agreed on landlord-tenant relationship between them. Since the department has admitted the fact of tenancy in the written statement, the suit could be decreed on admission and the tenant was liable to pay the rent due.
The decree and judgment was belatedly challenged by the provincial government. The intra-court appeal said the department was not a tenant and the admission was based on a typographical mistake. The government became the owner of the property under MLR 118. The institutions were taken over along with their liabilities and assets. The provisions of the Sindh Rented Premises Ordinance would not apply as the ordinance was promulgated in 1979 and also because the government was the owner of the property also. The department was not earning profit from the properties, which were being used exclusively for educational purposes. The limitation law would not apply as the single judge’s order was ‘ab initio’ void being based on the premise that the government was a tenant of its own property.
KSE restrained
Justice Amir Hani Muslim, meanwhile, restrained the Karachi Stock Exchange from disposing of the assets of a brokerage house. A creditor moved a petition through Advocate Moazzam Ali Shah saying that owed the brokerage house a sum of Rs1.5 million. The assets of the brokerage house could be sold by the KSE in case of default. Issuing notices to the KSE and the brokerage house, the court restrained the respondents from alienating their assets till the next date of hearing.
Bail allowed
A division bench comprising Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi, meanwhile, allowed bail to the mukhtiarkar and tapedar of Tapo Songal, Gadap, involved as co-accused in the National Accountability Bureau reference against the Malir Development Authority director-general Ameerzada Khan Kohati, who has already been granted bail in the sum of Rs1 million. They are alleged to have helped the accused in transferring 16 acres of land acquired by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board to private individual and parties.
Appearing for the applicants, Advocate Zamir Ghumro submitted that were not working in their respective posts at the time of occurrence. Any bogus entries made in the revenue record might have been the work of their predecessors and they could not be held responsible for any illegality or irregularity committed before their taking over the posts. Without going into the merits of the case, the bench allowed both bail in the sum of Rs1 million each.
