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LAHORE, Jan 14: The Lahore High Court chief justice directed on Tuesday that no police official in the Punjab would produce a civilian before any Army Monitoring Team even if directed so by the latter.
The CJ also summoned an official of the AMT on Jan 16, on a petition filed against the alleged harassment by AMTs and their interference in civilian matters.
Maj Muhammad Umar of the 114 Brigade has been summoned while Deputy Attorney-General (DAG) Dr Danishwar Malik has been instructed to file the reply of ministry of defence on the next hearing.
The CJ directed the Lahore District Police Officer to fax the court orders to every police station in the city that no citizen was to be produced before AMTs by any police officer.
Earlier, Additional Advocate-General Nasim Sabir produced an order of the provincial government, stating that the Punjab police had withdrawn all its force attached with the AMTs.
The DAG informed the court that according to the ministry of defence, the matter had been referred to the GHQ which had further forwarded it to the Lahore Corps Headquarters and a reply in this regard was still awaited.
The court observed that the DAG should come up with maximum information on the stance of ministry of defence by the next hearing.
Petitioner Asad Ayub had alleged that he had been forced by Col Muhammad Tariq of the AMT to sign a document for the payment of Rs1.2 million to Khwaja Muhammad Ishaq.
KHWAJAS’ PLEAS: Two petitions filed by the Khwaja family, seeking grant of permission for Umar Karar to perform Haj and the provision of facilities to the detained men under jail manual, would be taken up on Wednesday (today).
Justice Javed Buttar, after hearing arguments of Pervez Inayat Malik, observed that the two petitions would be considered on Wednesday along with the main petition challenging the detention.
ITTEFAQ FOUNDRIES: The proceedings on a petition filed for the disposal and liquidation of Ittefaq Foundries’ assets were adjourned for Feb 26 by the company judge of the Lahore High Court at the request of petitioner banks. The disposal proceedings had been initiated after the handing over of Ittefaq Foundries’ assets to the National Bank of Pakistan and seven other banks as a result of an adjustment made by the parties during September 1998.
A recovery of Rs1.5 billion had been claimed from the Ittefaq Foundries. Petitioner banks’ counsel sought time to file a comprehensive report about the debt retirement which was allowed by the court.
The petitioners have approached the court to liquidate the assets of Ittefaq Foundries in steel division for the adjustment of their outstanding loans.
The assets taken over by the petitioners included vehicles, stocks and other movable assets.
