0
KARACHI, Sept 15: The provincial government would be well advised to streamline its administration and ensure that important notifications, particularly those relating to fiscal matters, are available, the Sindh High Court observed on Thursday.
The observation came when the government failed to produce any notification on the territorial limits of the city district government of Karachi. The issue cropped up during the hearing of a petition moved by a builder, who submitted through Advocate Faisal Kamal Alam that he purchased what was hitherto agricultural land in Gadap Town. When the sale deed was submitted to the registrar of properties concerned, it was impounded for being insufficiently stamped.
The petitioner was told that the land had since been included in the city district of Karachi and that the rural areas in the entire Gadap Town had been converted into and categorized as urban areas for purposes of stamp duty.
He, however, claimed that no notification had been issued for conversion of the rural area under the Land Revenue Act or the Sindh Local Government Ordinance and the stamp duty was being recovered without any sanction. Justices M Mujibullah Siddiqui and Khilji Arif Hussain, who constituted the bench hearing the petition, asked the provincial government to produce the necessary notification.
Additional local government secretary Ghulam Arif Khan, who appeared in the court along with additional advocate-general M. Ahmed Pirzada, said the notification was being searched but could not be located ‘so far’.
The bench remarked that it was ‘very painful and agonizing’ to observe that the government officials concerned had not been able to locate the notification specifying the territorial limits of the biggest city district government of the country.
“This,” it said, “is the height of inefficiency and incompetence”. The government would be well advised to streamline its administration.
“The government always complains of scarcity of funds but a matter which involves billions of rupees in state revenue is being dealt with in a very irresponsible manner”, the bench observed. Giving the government ‘a last opportunity’ to produce the notification, it adjourned the hearing to Sept 27.
A copy was ordered to be sent to the chief secretary, who ‘shall also consider appropriate action against all officers who have acted in a negligent and irresponsible manner’. The chief secretary was asked to inform the bench, by Sept 24, whether a notification had at all been issued and, if so, why it was not readily available.
SENTENCED: The Sindh High Court on Thursday sentenced the finance director of the Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate till the rising of the court and also fined him Rs 10,000 for filing a misleading affidavit.
Director Abdul Majeed Chaudhry was summoned by the court in a contempt petition moved by a suspended accounts officer of the estate for non-payment of his salary since 1999 despite a court order. Petitioner Zahoor Ahmed Solangi was suspended following registration of a corruption case against him. He is facing the trial but was released on bail by the high court.
He reported for duty after bail and claimed full emoluments in accordance with the law through Advocate Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh. The court upheld his claim but the SITE management delayed payment for about a year and a half. The SITE counsel submitted that the SHC order for payment five years’ remunerations during suspension had been challenged in the Supreme Court.
The finance director stated in his affidavit that the apex court had granted a stay. The averment was denied by the petitioner employee and it transpired that the appeal had not been taken up by the Supreme Court due to an office objection on ground of limitation.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro, came down heavily on the SITE management and its counsel for misleading the court. It asked the court nazir to release the amount of petitioner’s salaries deposited with him by the management and punished the finance director.
