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LAHORE, Nov 29: Police handed over an absconding lawyer-liquidator’s car to a dealer while a bank adjusted his fixed deposit against his credit card dues, Lahore High Court company judge Nasim Sikandar was informed on Thursday.
Both transactions took place after Oct 24 when the judge passed orders for freeze of Advocate S.A. Askari’s assets and issued warrants for his arrest. The lawyer, absconding with over Rs1.3 million of the funds of the company under liquidation, the Himalaya Textile Mills, remains untraced.
Advocate Waheed Akhtar, the new liquidator, has got a case registered against him as directed by the court.
The owner of Askari’s law office premises at 17, Bagh Gul Begum Road, Mozang, Lahore, appeared on Thursday and informed the court that the lawyer was his tenant. He claimed to be related to a high-up and also brought an actress to his office. He disappeared in October and the office premises remained locked since.
In between, however, the Civil Lines police broke open the lock and took away a new Suzuki car parked there to hand it over to a dealer who claimed that he had rented it out to the missing lawyer. Only a few files and a cabinet were left in the office. The court asked the new liquidator to take possession of them.
A foreign bank informed the court that Askari had a fixed deposit of Rs500,000, out of which Rs450,000 have been deducted to recover his credit card dues. A sum of Rs50,000 was left in his account. A notice was issued to the bank to explain why the amount was taken out after the freeze order.
SCIENTISTS CASE: The hearing of two habeas corpus petitions for production and release of scientists and others belonging to a trust hitherto active in Afghanistan was on Thursday adjourned to Friday.
Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, who is hearing the petitions, took serious exception to certain remarks attributed to him and a lawyer in a section of the press.
Advocate Mian Jamil Akhtar, who is representing petitioner-lawyer M.D. Tahir in a petition filed by him on Nov 5, categorically denied having briefed the press about Wednesday’s proceedings.
Advocate Muhammad Ismail Qureshy, who is appearing for the mother of Dr Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, one of the detainees, expressed his regrets and agreed that no lawyer except him advanced detailed arguments on Wednesday.
The court observed that the bar and the press should take extra care when dealing with sensitive matters. In any case, court proceedings should never be misreported.
PLEA DISMISSED: The Lahore High Court dismissed a writ petition questioning oil price increases in the name of adjustment by successive governments and by oil companies.
The petition, filed by Advocate M.D. Tahir, said while any raise in the prices in international market was immediately followed and enforced, the Pakistan government and oil dealers cared little for price cuts. Oil price rise results in a general sympathetic increase in the prices of other commodities because of the enhanced transportation rates.
Appearing for the federal government, Deputy Attorney-General Khwaja Saeeduz Zafar said the government had twice lowered oil prices since the filing of the petition. It was fully aware of the problems of the people and tried to ensure that any relief afforded by price fall in the international market was duly passed on to the consumer. In any case, it was none of the court’s functions to compute and determine oil prices.
Petitioner-lawyer M.D. Tahir could not attend the proceedings due to indisposition and Justice M. Javed Buttar dismissed the petition for non-prosecution after hearing the DAG’s arguments. — Shujaat Ali Khan
