November 12, 2008	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 13, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 11: A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Ghulam Dastagir Shahani restrained on Tuesday the Korangi town municipal administration from dispossessing shopkeepers of their shops.

Advocate Mohammad Ali Soomro submitted that petitioners Anwar Gul and another shopkeeper after duly obtaining lease rights of plots B1, B6 and B7 in Zia Colony, Korangi, had been running cement block manufacturing business for the past 25 years.

Recently, the TMA Korangi and Land Utilisation Department staff demanded illegal gratification and threatened to demolish his shops if he failed to meet the demand. They also took away his machinery worth Rs72,000.

He said the petitioners enjoyed legal lease rights of the property, and, therefore, the TMA or LUD staff had no right to dispossess them. He prayed to the court to restrain the respondents from such illegal practices.

The division bench, after hearing the statement, issued a notice to the Korangi Town nazim, the city nazim, the secretary of the LUD, for Nov 18, and restrained the respondents from dispossessing the petitioners till the next date of hearing.

Missing man

The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed Deputy Attorney-General Amir Raza Naqvi and Advocate-General of Sindh Yusuf Laghari to submit by Nov 25 a report on the whereabouts of an alleged detainee.

Petitioner Asfiya Zeshan approached the SHC against the federal and provincial interior secretaries, the IG of Sindh, the DIG of Karachi, the officer in charge of the CID Civil Lines and the DG of Sindh Rangers.

She submitted through Advocate Ilyas Khan that plainclothes men, claiming to be personnel of the Special Branch, took away her husband, Zeshan Jalil, aged 27-28, on Shahra-i-Quaideen on Oct 18.

His family visited many police stations to seek information about Zeshan. An FIR (280/2008) on his kidnapping was lodged at the Brigade police station two days later. She stated that though the police lodged the FIR, they did not help find the detainee, who had been missing since then. She prayed to the court to issue rule Nisi to the respondents to produce the missing man in court.

The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Ghulam Dastagir A. Shahni, directed DAG Amir Raza Naqvi and Sindh AG Yusuf Laghari to submit a report on the whereabouts of the alleged detainee on behalf of the respondents.

They sought time, which was granted till Nov 25.

Convict gets bail

A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justices Qaiser Iqbal and Mehmood Alam Rizvi on Tuesday granted bail to a convict in a double-murder case.

According to the prosecution, appellant Qadeer alias Qadeem Palari and co-accused Rab Nawaz were accused of killing Mohammad Faheem and Abdul Sattar by setting bus (JA-2572) on fire in Gadap in 1999. The additional sessions judge-1 (Malir) sentenced the appellant with the co-accused to life and imposed a fine of Rs200,000 on each on Aug 15, 2007.

Advocate Mian Khan Malik for the appellant said the conviction of Qadeer was converted from Section 302 to Section 315, reducing his sentence to 10 year RI, fine to Rs10,000, but under Section 427 the sentence of two years RI was maintained.

The Supreme Court set aside this order on Sept 29 and remanded the case back to the high court for passing a fresh judgment in accordance with the law.

The court order said: “In view of dictum of SC, we order bailable warrants in sum of Rs50,000 be issued for co-accused Rab Nawaz alias Rabbo through SHO PS Gadap, Karachi. The appellant served two years, three months jail term, while he was also extended benefit of US382-B CrPC, he is entitled to concession of bail, which is granted subject to furnishing solvent surety in sum of Rs100,000 to satisfaction of Nazir of court. Matter may be considered parted heard.”—PPI