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KARACHI, Nov 13: A division bench of the Sindh High Court admitted to regular hearing on Wednesday four writ petitions challenging the recovery of fees on farm produce by union councils.
The bench, composed of Justices S. Ahmed Sarwana and Mujibullah Siddiqui, asked the provincial government through its law officer to submit comments on the petitions within three days. The petitions would be heard with identical pleas moved earlier from Nov 20. Notices were ordered to be issued to all respondents.
In their petitions filed through advocate Fareed Ahmed Dayo, fruit and vegetable merchants complained that they were being forced to pay ‘dalali’ and ‘nangani’ fees by union councils on the merchandize bought and brought by them from Sukkur to Khairpur. The fees were being recovered by union council contractors.
The petitioners said they were already paying the fees to the market committees, which alone were competent to realize them under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Act. The recovery was also in clear violation of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance. The fees were confiscatory as no person could be deprived of his property save in accordance with law under Article 24 of the Constitution.
Admitting the plea, the bench restrained the union councils and their contractors from recovering the fees pending the hearing and disposal of the petitions.
SENTENCE SET ASIDE: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, on Wednesday set aside the death sentence against Ghufranullah and Mehmood on charge of killing a police constable and injuring his friend in Karachi on July 11, 1998, adds PPI.
According to an FIR lodged in the New Karachi police station, Ghufranullah and Mehmood, with two other accomplices, went to police constable Mehboob Ali who was sitting outside his house with a friend. The accused killed Mehboob and injured his friend Arif.
The Malir police arrested Ghufranullah in another case. During investigations he confessed to killing the police constable. Mehmood had been arrested earlier.
The Anti-Terrorist Court II judge, Hameed Abro, had awarded death sentences to both the accused on July 21, 1999.
They filed appeal in the High Court against the sentences. Their counsel Mehmood Alam Zaidi submitted that the identification parade was not done for the accused and they were identified by witnesses after one year.
He further submitted that there were only two witnesses without any supportive witnesses and there were contradictions between the statements of the witnesses. Prosecution counsel Habib Ahmed defended the judgment of the ATC.
The same bench dismissed the petition of Liaquat Ali and Shahbaz filed against their life imprisonment on charge of abduction. They were charged with abducting a three-year old girl, Rimsha, on November 28, 2001, in the limits of the Saeedabad police station. They demanded a Rs200,000 ransom from her father. Rab Nawaz.
The accused phoned Rab Nawaz for ransom from a PCO whose owner Rasheed Qureshi overheard the conversation and raised alarm. The accused were caught by the area people and handed over to police. They were sentenced to life imprisonment by the ATC-I judge, Al-Mehmood Rizvi.
BAIL REJECTED: A division bench of the High Court of Sindh, comprising Justice Shabbir Ahmed and Justice Muhammed Sadiq Leghari, rejected a bail application filed by Shaikh Ejaz-ur-Rahman, alleged to be one of the beneficiaries of the Alliance Motor Company fraud. When the bail plea came up for hearing, deputy prosecutor general NAB, Anwar Tarique, submitted that till 1984 the applicant had been a poor man, but suddenly in 1994 he got Rs50 million in his bank account. The source of income of the applicant could not be accounted for. The ill-gotten wealth was siphoned off from the Alliance Motors’ account, adds APP.
The prosecutor submitted that the applicant was an accused in a NAB reference and could not be released on bail. The bench dismissed the bail plea.
Another bench of the SHC, comprising Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice S.Ali Aslam Jafri, reserved orders on a constitutional petition filed by Dr Mubarik, a former medico-legal officer of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi.
The petitioner moved the court impugning a final show-cause notice issued to him under the Removal from Services Act. The petitioner maintained that the notice was mala fide and might result in his arbitrary removal from the service for an incident which allegedly occurred 10 years ago.
According to details, a DSP had filed a written complaint against the petitioner with the then deputy commissioner central, alleging that the petitioner was corrupt and demanded gratification for medico-legal reports.
The DC had written a letter to the Sindh health department and an inquiry was instituted. The petitioner was served with a notice after the completion of the inquiry, and later with the impugned final show-cause. The bench today, after hearing AAG representing the Sindh government and the counsel for the petitioner, reserved its order.
The same bench also issued notice, for Nov 19, to ASI Ghulam and other officials of the Landhi police station, on a habeas corpus petition filed by Muhammed Tahir, a social worker.
The petitioner maintains that a police party headed by the respondent, ASI Ghulam, took away his younger brother Muzaffar from his residence on October 24. Since then he had neither been released nor produced before any court of law.
