KARACHI, Jan 18: A Sindh High Court division bench refused on Tuesday an under-trial former divisional commissioner's release on bail but ordered that he be shifted back to hospital from the Central Prison.

The petitioner, Ziaul Islam, is facing trial for allegedly acquiring assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and a division bench had, while disposing of his writ petition for grant of bail earlier last year, directed the prosecution agency, the National Accountability Bureau, to conclude its evidence by Dec 24.

He moved another petition for his release on bail through Advocate Raja Qureshi for the NAB's failure to conclude its evidence and on medical grounds. He also sought his shifting to hospital.

A division bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and M. Mujibullah Siddiqui declined to modify the earlier direction but ordered the petitioner's shifting to hospital for medical examination by a medical board and treatment, if so required.

NAZIMS' CASE: The bench, meanwhile, adjourned the hearing of a writ petition moved by the nazims of the bifurcated districts of Dadu, Jacobabad, Larkana and Mirpurkhas against their removal and replacement by the district coordination officers to Jan 24.

Assistant Advocate-General Habib Ahmed informed the bench that Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan had to proceed to Islamabad for hearing of a case before the Supreme Court.

KBCA PLEA GRANTED: Justice Mushir Alam allowed an application moved by the Karachi Building Control Authority for urgent hearing of its case against the Pakistan Association of Women Entrepreneurs for misusing an amenity plot in Scheme 5, Clifton. The plot was leased out for a welfare project but, according to the KBCA, the allottee had put it to residential and commercial use.

KBCA counsel Shahid Jamil Khan submitted that a violative structure had been raised without an approved plan and the basement was being used for residential purposes while a school had been set up on the ground floor. He requested the court to restrain the allottee from making admissions to the new academic year. The court fixed Feb 2 as the date of hearing.

PIAC RESTRAINED: The Federal Service Tribunal, meanwhile, restrained the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation from conducting a written test and viva voce exam for promotion of 11 doctors employed by it.

Dr Farooq A. Noorani and 10 other doctors complained that the Supreme Court had upheld a tribunal order for promotion of the doctors in accordance with the rules fomulated under the PIAC Act. Instead of implementing the SC-tribunal order, the airline decided to hold a written test and viva voce for promotion of doctors.

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