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July 25, 2008	Friday	Rajab 21, 1429

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KARACHI, July 24: A division bench of the Sindh High Court consisting of Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Khwaja Naveed Ahmed set aside the conviction of Rehmat Ali, quashed the life imprisonment awarded to him and ordered his release if not required in any other case.

The appellant was arrested on Nov 29, 2000. He was allegedly robbing passers-by at gun-point along with other members of his gang when they were challenged by a police party. Constable Furqan and gang leader Ali Hyder were killed in the clash and Rehmat Ali was booked for murder and other offences under the Anti-Terrorism Act. He was tried by an anti-terrorism court and was jailed for life. Besides lesser penalties for other offences, he was asked to pay Rs100,000 to the heirs of the deceased constable.

He challenged his conviction and sentence and the appellate bench found the prosecution case and evidence against him too flawed and infirm to sustain a conviction.

CNG prices

Another division bench reprimanded the respondents in a petition questioning CNG prices for not filing comments despite a lapse of 14 days.

The petitions have been moved by Advocates Javaid Ahmed Chhatari, Maqboolur Rehman and Farah Awan to challenge what they describe as arbitrary prices charged by the compressed natural gas dealers. They allege that the prices recovered by the dealers after July 1 were much higher than fixed by the government. The prices shot up from Rs38.25 per kilogram to Rs51.25.

The dealers submitted through their counsel that the prices were increased in accordance with the government announcement. They, however, failed to produce any notification or circular sanctioning the increase.

Advocate Chhatari said under Rule 13 of the Oil and Gas Authority (Ogra) Rules, 1992, the dealers were bound to consult the consumers before revising prices. The dealers said it was not possible to seek the opinion of each and every consumer and there was no representative forum of the consumers to consult. Mr Chhatari said what the rule envisaged was soliciting of public objections through public notices in the media. The dealers do not even announce new prices and start charging them straightaway.

Deputy Attorney-General Imran Ahmad said there was some confusion over prices which needed to be cleared. He said he would try to obtain a copy of the relevant notification to assist the court in adjudication of the matter.

The division bench, which consisted of acting Chief Justice Azizullah M. Memon and Khalid Ali Z. Qazi, asked the petitioners to append the necessary documents and drop the unnecessary parties joined as respondents. The respondents were told to submit their replies by July 28 without fail.

Salaries released

Assistant Advocate-General Adnan Karim Memon, meanwhile, produced the salary slips of 167 low-grade employees of the literacy department. He informed the bench, which is seized of a petition moved by about 200 employees of the department, that there were objections raised by the accounts department in respect of 26 employees but they, too, would be paid their salaries as soon as the objections were removed.

The petitioners complained that they were duly selected and appointed and were posted in accordance with the rules. However, they were not being paid their salaries.

Notice to police

The bench issued notices to police officers and other respondents for July 29 in a petition moved by Munawwar Ali Hilayo and Mohammad Saleem Hilayo of Thatta alleging that they were being harassed through police by their political rivals in the ruling PPP. They said they were being threatened with registration of criminal cases.

The petitioners requested the court to direct the police to produce the record of criminal inquiries and the cases registered, if any, against them. They also sought the court’s protection against arbitrary arrest pending the hearing of their petition.