December 19, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 20, 1429

KARACHI, Dec 18: Justice Sajjad Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court adjourned the hearing of an appeal against the conviction of Muhajir Qaumi Movement leader Aamir Khan on Thursday.

Aamir Khan was first convicted in a case for snatching a sub-machine gun from provincial minister Shoaib Bukhari’s gunman in 1995. He was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. Though he had since served out the sentence, his appeal against conviction is still pending.

He was convicted for the second time for conspiracy in the killing of two Muttahida workers during a by-poll in 2003. An anti-terrorism court sentenced him to 10 years. His appeal against his conviction and sentence is pending before a division bench and is fixed for hearing on January 17. According to his counsel, M. Ilyas Khan, he has also served out his second sentence.

Aamir Khan was greeted by dozens of his party workers as he came out of the armoured personnel carrier that brought him to the high court.

Bourse legal battle

Justice Gulzar Ahmed of the Sindh High Court advised the various parties to the stock market case to come up with an equitable and reasonable proposal to protect their interests without eroding the investors’ confidence.

Allowing the banks and other ‘financiers’ to join the proceedings in a suit instituted by two ‘financee’ stock brokers, the judge said he would hear the plaintiffs’ counsel, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, early in the morning before proceeding with the financiers’ plea to modify its interim order to reactivate the continuous funding system (CFS).

The leading brokerage houses had taken huge short-term loans through the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited but as the market started sliding, they feared defaulting on repayment and going bankrupt. The financier investment banks also apprehended big losses because of the market crisis and their stuck-up loans with the brokers.

The placing of floor on the share prices brought short-term relief while a bail-out by the government was still awaited. As the SECP decided to remove the floor, the brokers instituted a suit for rescission of CFS contracts and obtained a stay order. The financiers sought to be joined in as necessary parties and sought modification of the stay order to allow the CFS operations to resume. They also moved a petition challenging Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) directives to extend the period of repayment of loans extended under the CFS contracts.

NCCPL counsel Ijaz Ahmed and financiers’ counsel Kazim Hasan and Abid S. Zuberi earnestly pleaded for a modification in the interim order to allow the clearing company to collect losses from the brokers. Mr Pirzada said any such modification would dispose of the entire suit and the brokers would go in default. The NCCPL counsel also supported the financiers’ plea for joining the suit proceedings as the clearing company, which has been cited as a defendant, was only a ‘facilitator’ acting as an intermediary between the financiers and the financees.

SECP counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan, Karachi Stock Exchange counsel Munib Akhtar and Deputy Attorney-General Amer Raza Naqvi also supported the financiers’ plea to become interveners, though they reserved their opinion on the issue of modification of the interim order. The counsel said a holistic picture would emerge and adjudication would be facilitated if the all principal stakeholders were allowed to join the proceedings.

Justice Ahmed observed that he may announce his order in respect of the requested modification early in the morning after hearing Mr Pirzada. Advocates Abdul Sattar Pirzada, Abdul Qayyum Abbasi, Osman Hadi, Adnan Chaudhry and Omar Lakhani assisted their senior associates appearing as the main counsel. Meanwhile, the court advice for an equitable solution may encourage the parties to negotiate a compromise settlement to protect the various stakeholders and minimise their losses.