KARACHI, Oct 1 A division bench of the Sindh High Court directed on Thursday the counsel for the sister of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the alleged Al Qaeda terrorist, to bring on record evidence to prove that the suspect was a Pakistani national.

Claiming to be Khalid's sister, petitioner Maryam submitted through Advocate G.M. Jatoi that her brother being a Pakistani should have been tried in Pakistan if a crime was alleged to have been committed by him.

She requested the court to issue a direction against the authorities responsible for handing over Khalid to the US authorities without adopting extradition proceedings and order his repatriation to Pakistan.

The petitioner stated her relatives, Ramzi Yusuf, Abdul Qadir and Khalid Shaikh were picked up one by one and handed over to foreign authorities without any legal proceedings.

The two-member bench, headed by the chief justice, put off the hearing of the case till Oct 20.

Petition allowed

A division bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Aqeel Ahmed, allowed the petition of a power generation company, challenging the cancellation of a 50-acre plot in the Hawkesbay by the authorities.

The Tri-Star Energy Ltd was allotted the plot on a nine-year lease at the rate of Rs200,000 per acre in 1995.

The petitioner, who made the secretary of Land Untilisation, Board of Revenue, EDO Revenue and others respondent, submitted that the matter of allotment was propounded to and a committee was formed which through a detail report in 1998 opined that the land was allotted after fulfilling all required formalities.

However, in 2001 the allotment was cancelled under the Sindh Government Land (cancellation of allotment, conversions and exchanges) Ordinance, 2000, and the petitioner was asked to approach the committee for payment of the differential amount for regularisation of the land.

The petitioner submitted that he was not issued a challan for the payment of the land.

An additional advocate-general contended that the rate fixed by the committee were not in accordance with the market value. According to him, since the challan has not been paid, no rights had been created or vested in the petition.

The AAG stated that the petitioner was repeatedly called upon to attend the meeting, but he did not appear and the committee in its meeting in 2006 decided the rate at Rs960,000 per acre.

The court observed that it was not disputed that the committee earlier constituted in 1998 found that the land was allotted after fulfilling all cordial formalities.

It also observed that the purpose of the ordinance from the preamble appeared to be to check if the allotment was made below the market value in violation of the ordinance.

While allowing the petition, the court ordered the authorities to issue the challan for the differential amount. However, the petitioner would be liable to pay interest on the value determined by the committee at the prevailing market rate, the order said.