KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday issued a warrant for the arrest of an official of the antiquities and archaeology department for his absence during the hearing of an application seeking contempt of court proceedings.

The single-judge bench headed by Justice Agha Faisal also restrained an additional advocate general of Sindh from representing the commissioner of Karachi and other defendants and observed that a state counsel could not represent them in the matters pertaining to contempt of court.

The Karachi Gymkhana had moved an application seeking contempt proceedings against the commissioner, the directors general of the Sindh Building Control Authority and antiquities and archaeology and other defendants.

The plaintiff submitted that on June 16 the bench had directed the alleged contemnors not to interfere with the developmental and construction works being undertaken within the gymkhana without due process of law, but the defendants accompanied by police forced their entry into the premises and tried to stop the work.

Six Baloch ‘militants’ remanded in police custody till Aug 3

On Monday, the bench found a section officer of antiquities and archaeology, Mohammad Khan, absent despite being summoned for appearance.

The bench issued a warrant against him and directed the police to produce him before it on July 27.

It also directed the commissioner and other defendants to engage private counsel as state counsel could not represent them in contempt of court cases.

Earlier, the lawyer for plaintiff urged that the building of Karachi Gymkhana was not a heritage site since merely issuing an official letter was not enough, but a gazette notification was issued to include any property in the list of heritage sites.

The Karachi commissioner in his reply had contended that a contempt application was baseless, misconceived and filed with mala fide intention to malign him in the false contempt application, adding that he could not imagine disobeying the orders of any court of law.

He further replied that he had not committed any contempt of court and if inadvertently any mistake had occurred, he tendered an unconditional apology for it.

Six remanded in police custody

The administrative judge of antiterrorism courts on Monday remanded six suspected militants in police custody in explosives and illicit weapons cases till Aug 3.

Police produced Sher Khan, Karim Bux, Dilshad, Mooran Khan, Dur Khan and Amir Bux before the court and contended that they were affiliated with a Baloch insurgent group operating from Afghanistan and supported by Indian intelligence agency RAW.

The investigating officer submitted that they were allegedly involved in deadly attacks on the army, FC and levies personnel’s caravans in Balochistan and sought their custody for questioning.

The administrative judge handed them over to police on a 14-day physical remand and directed the IO to produce them again at the next hearing with a progress report.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2020