KARACHI, Feb 10: The Sindh Environmental Protection Tribunal on Thursday issued notices to the chief secretary and other officials over the delay in shifting of ice factories from residential areas. Last year on June 24, the tribunal directed the chief secretary and other officials of the provincial government to formulate rules and regulations within two months for ice factories and shift those factories operating in residential vicinities to industrial areas across the province.

On the previous hearing (Jan 11), the director general of Sepa submitted a report before the tribunal which stated that a committee headed by the chief secretary had been constituted and its meeting was held on Jan 4 in which a sub-committee comprising the representatives of the law department, the local government and the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) was formed and it would come up with its recommendations within 15 days.

However, when the matter came up for hearing before the tribunal comprising Ashraf Jahan (chairperson) and Abdul Karim Memon (legal) on Thursday, no representative of the chief secretary and other officials was present, which annoyed the tribunal.

The public prosecutor, Abdul Maroof, who was representing Sepa, requested the tribunal to give a last chance. The chairperson asked him whether the government officials had intimated him about any progress. The prosecutor replied in the negative.

The tribunal put the chief secretary, the deputy secretary of services and general administration and the coordination department and the director-general of Sepa on notice for Feb 24. Suspects remanded

The courts of different judicial magistrates on Wednesday remanded two suspects in police custody in over a dozen cases pertaining to targeted killing.

The police arrested Dr Amjad Saeed alias Javed and Mohammad Ismail Shah on Feb 9 for their alleged involvement in 13 cases of targeted killings within the remit of the Orangi Town, the Pirabad and the Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan police stations. The magistrates handed over the suspects to police on physical remand till Feb 14 and directed the investigation officers to produce them on next hearings.

Meanwhile, a group of lawyers on Thursday announced the boycott of legal proceedings at the city courts and demanded the removal of offices of non-governmental organisations from the court premises.

However, it did not affect the court proceedings since the Karachi Bar Associations did not back the call and urged the lawyers to appear in courts.

A few weeks ago the managing committee of the KBA had unanimously passed a resolution which demanded that the offices of the NGOs providing free legal assistance should be removed from the city courts and the prisons.