KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the chief secretary to ensure that a summary pending before the chief minister regarding establishment of 23 more consumer protection courts be expedited after provincial authorities informed the SHC that six courts had been notified.

In a previous hearing, the officials said in compliance with an Aug 28 order of the bench, a summary had been floated for establishment of consumer protection councils and six consumer courts at the divisional level in the province.

When the matter came up before the two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, an additional law secretary submitted a notification dated Sept 26 about establishment of six consumer courts in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad, Larkana and Sukkur.

The additional secretary further said that a summary about establishment of 23 remaining courts had already been sent to the chief minister office by the agriculture department and order on it was awaited.

While adjourning the matter till Oct 30, the bench directed the chief secretary and an additional advocate general to ensure that pending summary be expedited by the CM.

Earlier, the bench had ordered the establishment of consumer courts on a petition of advocate Tariq Mansoor against non-implementation of the Sindh Consumer Protection Act, 2014.

Former judge’s appeal referred to CJ

Another two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Niamatullah Phulpoto on Thursday referred an appeal of a former district judge against the death sentence to chief justice to fix it before another bench after Justice Phulpoto recused himself from the proceedings.

An ATC had sentenced former district and sessions judge Sikandar Lashari and another convict to death last month after finding them involved in the murder case of 19-year-old Aqib Shahani, son of his fellow district and sessions judge Khalid Hussain Shahani, in Hyderabad in February 2014.

The former judge through his lawyer challenged the death sentence before the SHC.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2018