KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued directives for appearance of an officer of the National Highway Authority (NHA) and the focal person of inspector general of police on May 6 on a petition pertaining to issues of inter-provincial goods’ transportation.

It was stated in the petition that during a lockdown imposed by the order of the Sindh government, there was no ban on transportation of essential goods to other provinces.

However, auto workshops, filling stations, tyre puncture shops and spare parts shops were closed on highways and drivers and transporters were facing severe problems.

Unless such shops were allowed to be opened and functional, it was very difficult for the petitioners to continue the supply of different essential products and edible items from one province to another.

NAB convicts’ exclusion from remission granted on account of Covid-19 challenged in SHC

The additional advocate general sought time to file a reply and the deputy attorney general also requested for time to submit comments of the NHA.

The bench directed the deputy attorney general to call the officer concerned of the NHA on the next hearing and also asked the focal person of the IGP to come up with a reply on May 6.

The additional advocate general submitted that according to his information, such shops were allowed to be opened on highways, but he wanted some time to file comments in this regard.

The bench directed the provincial law officer to inform it on the next hearing whether any standard operating procedures (SOPs) had been prepared by the Sindh government to handle the situation.

Notices issued

Another SHC bench on Tuesday issued notices to the provincial authorities on a petition against an order of prison authorities through which they excluded those convicted of corruption cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau from the remissions granted on account of Covid-19.

The two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh issued notices to the Sindh chief secretary, home secretary and the inspector general of prisons directing them to file comments in four weeks.

Petitioner Advocate Asad Ashfaq submitted that the IG-prisons issued a letter/office order on March 13 granting special remissions of two months on account of the Covid-19 outbreak to all convicts except those convicted of espionage, anti-state activities, subversion, terrorism, karo kari, NAB and Foreigners Act, 1946.

He argued that Section 10(d) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, which barred remissions for convicts of NAB cases, was declared to be ultra vires of the Constitution by a full bench of the SHC through a judgement reported in 2007 and this legal position was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2010.

It is a settled law that the judgements of the superior courts were binding on each and every organ of the state, he maintained.

The petitioner contended that the impugned letter was full of illegalities and was prejudicing the rights of the prisoners convicted and sentenced under the NAO, 1999.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2020