KARACHI, Sept 28: Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui of the Sindh High Court has ordered the secretary of the ministry of defence to place in the court the findings of inquiry into Multan Fokker crash in sealed cover.

The court will take up the matter on November 1. The order came on Thursday in a suit instituted by the widow and three children of Dr Altaf Hussain, assistant professor and head of the psychiatry department of the Bahawal Victoria Hospital, who was killed in the crash on July 10 last year.

Plaintiffs Dr Naheed Fatima and her three children said the accident occurred due to negligence of the Pakistan International Airlines and the Civil Aviation Authority.

Based on the earnings of Dr Altaf, a sum of Rs154 million has been demanded as damages.

Plaintiffs’ counsel Nasir Maqsood moved an application in the suit wherein it was pleaded that the Civil Aviation Authority formed an accident investigation board to carry out a probe into the crash of the aircraft.

It was contended that the plaintiffs many a times sought a report from PIA and the CAA but no such report could be furnished though it was reported in the media that the report had been concluded.

On June 29, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court had asked the PIA and the CAA to furnish a copy of the Multan Fokker crash investigation report if completed.

The case was again fixed for August 7 when the counsel for the CAA Faisal Kamal sought two weeks time for furnishing the report.

However, the report could not be produced till the end of September 2007 when the matter was again fixed on September 24.

Defendants contended that it was the discretion of the ministry of defence by virtue of rules whether to make the report public or not, and therefore showed inability to furnish the same.

In view of the submissions the single-judge bench directed the secretary of the ministry of defence to comply with the earlier order and produce the result of the inquiry report before the next date of hearing.—APP