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KARACHI, Oct 7: The Sindh High Court directed the police on Friday to recover four people allegedly detained as a sequel to matrimonial dispute.
Petitioner Mohammad Shafiq submitted through Advocate Siddique Mirza that his father, brother and two others, had been picked up by a police official for giving shelter to Mariam Ishtiaq and Adeel Baig of Jhelum, who married of their free will earlier in June and fled to Karachi to escape torture and harassment by the girl’s father and his relatives.
The counsel informed a division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Azizullah Memon, that Mariam was brutally beaten up and tortured by her father to force her to renounce her marriage with Adeel and seek divorce from him. The couple came to Karachi and Mariam sued for jactitation of marriage. Her father and others followed the couple and with the help of their friends in police, started raiding the places where they could get shelter. They even raided the lawyer’s office.
Advocate Mirza said four people, including the petitioner’s father and brother, were picked up by the raiding party on October 5 to extract information regarding the couple’s whereabouts. They were being held in illegal custody since. He requested the court to direct the police to recover and produce the illegally detained people.
Issuing notices to the respondent officials for Oct 10, the division bench ordered the police to ascertain the detainees’ whereabouts and recover them.
PROMOTION CASE: The Sindh High Court issued notices to the advocate-general, the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) and the provincial ombudsman in an application moved by the Karachi Building Control Authority against the probe undertaken by the ACE into promotion of its officers and officials.
Submitting an application for urgent hearing, KBCA counsel Shahid Jamil Khan recalled that the high court had asked the provincial ombudsman to look into the matter of ‘overall maladministration’ in the KBCA in September 2004. The order was subsequently clarified and the court laid down parameters for the probe. The necessary record, including documents relating to promotions, was submitted to the ombudsman.
While the ombudsman’s probe was still in progress, the KBCA received a letter from the ACE seeking information about the departmental promotions in the KBCA. He said all promotions were vetted and approved by the departmental promotion committee under the law and rules. Any aggrieved employee was free to challenge any irregular or illegal promotion by making a representation to the competent authority. If still dissatisfied, he could move an appeal before the Sindh Service Tribunal.
The counsel cited Supreme Court judgments declaring that promotion was not a vested right and an outside forum could not sit in appeal and review the decision of the competent authority without being conferred specific power in this behalf. He said the ACE action had created panic among the KBCA employees and was adversely affecting its functioning.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro, directed that notices be issued to the respondents and the advocate-general to decide the legal question whether the ACE or any other agency or department was empowered to review the promotions made by the KBCA departmental promotion committee.
Notice to NAB: The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notice to NAB on a petition filed by ex-MNA Abu Bakar Sheikhani seeking quashment of his detention order issued by the NAB on Dec 12, 1999.
