LAHORE, Aug 16: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday issued a notice to Mian Mohammed Ilyas Mehraj, the main shareholder of Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills and cousin of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on an application seeking appointment of inspectors at the mills to check financial irregularities.
Iqbal Latif, Lt-Gen Shujaat Ali Khan (retired) and Air Commodore Pervez Akhtar (retired) had filed the application through their lawyer Jawad Hasan. The lawyer said that applicants, who hold 9.45 per cent of shares, should be allowed to exercise their “legal corporate rights” and manage the company under corporate laws of the country.
He said the mills management intended to and had been defrauding its clients and shareholders of their profits through a consistent pattern of corporate abuse and fraud in total contravention of good corporate governance.
The lawyer said the management had indulged in trading of its shares in excess of 51 per cent, used the company shares in blatant exhibition of insider trading and manipulated the stock market. He said the management had siphoned off huge funds at the expense of shareholders and the state by pilfering monies from the company and falsifying accounts.
“Recently, Rs126 million were given to their sister concerns such as Haseeb Waqas Engineering and Yousaf Sugar Mills in interest-free loans.
They committed a major violation of Section 208 of the Companies Ordinance 1984 in 2006 by advancing an interest-free loan of Rs128 million to their associated companies.”
The counsel prayed the court to allow his clients to participate in the management of the company and appoint inspectors to check financial irregularities to do justice with all shareholders of the company.
Fined: Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rahman of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday imposed a Rs25,000 fine on a petitioner after it turned out that his allegation was fabricated.
Faiz Muhammad filed a petition with the LHC that his in-laws, of Faisalabad, had kidnapped his wife Nazia from Lahore.
Faiz said his in-laws had abducted her from his house in his absence. He claimed they had also stolen valuables from his house and he got a first information report registered in south Cantt police station.
But his wife denied the allegation, saying she had left her home with her will.
The justice ordered that the money be handed over to the woman, who would accompany her parents back home.
The judge ordered the petitioner to deposit the sum after he withdrew two similar petitions for the recovery of his wife.
Nazia’s counsel said she had left the petitioner’s home in Lahore after finding out that he was already married.
REPORT SOUGHT: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has sought reports from the vice-chancellor and the registrar of the King Edward Medical University (KEMU) within a week on a petition calling into question the appointment of an associate professor and an assistant professor to the university.
Dr Khurshid and Dr Ghulam Ali said through their lawyer Tariq Aziz Malik that the appointments were made in violation of the rules. They said they fulfilled the criteria, but they were ignored because the KEMU administration wanted to accommodate the kin of senior doctors. They prayed the court to declare the recruitments illegal and direct the administration to appoint them.
PLEA REJECTED: Justice Nasim Sikandar of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday dismissed a petition against the exhibition of movie ‘Khuda Kay Leay’.
Petitioner MD Tahir asked the court to ban the exhibition of the movie because it was “un-Islamic” and would create law and order situation in the country.
“The court in exercise of constitutional jurisdiction acts only to enforce a constitutional guarantee,” the judge observed in orders.
“It would accordingly be naive to seek a grant or relief which not countenanced.
“While enforcing a constitutional guarantee, this court cannot take into consideration loud and ambiguous thinking, newspaper reports or imaginations of a petitioner. The petition being frivolous must meet its fate.”