KARACHI, Oct 12: A Sindh High Court division bench ordered the production of a detainee and warned a provincial attorney that the government or its officials may have to pay compensation if there was no plausible reason for his prolonged detention.
A petition for the recovery and production of Shahid Rind was moved by his uncle, Ghulam Hussain, through advocate Adnan Karim. The petitioner alleged that the detainee was picked up by the CID police on July 28. No reason for arrest or detention was given nor was he produced before a judicial magistrate for remand. The SHC nazir found him in custody but the police made an entry in its record showing that he was arrested earlier this month as an accused in an encounter. There was no explanation for his detention from July 28 to the first week of October.
The bench ordered the production of the detainee and asked Additional Advocate-General Zubair Qureshi to find out from the record why he was arrested and detained in July when, according to the record, the arrest was made earlier this month. It said compensation might have to be ordered if there was no plausible explanation.
Appeals dismissed
A division bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed on Friday six of the seven appeals moved by the Khairpur University case convicts.
The appellants were convicted by an accountability court for sub-standard construction of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, which caused a huge loss of over Rs70 million to the public exchequer. They were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs10 million each.
Those arraigned before the court by the National Accountability Bureau were Khamiso Khan (project director), Dr A.Q. Alavi (chief consultant), Hidayatullah Khwaja (finance director of the university), Sikandar Ali Memon and Akhtar Ali (both assistant engineers), Bashir Ahmad Shaikh (site engineer), and contractor Roshan Khan.
The convicts preferred appeals in the high court, all but one of which were dismissed on Friday by a bench consisting of Justices Rehmat Hussain Jaffery and Khilji Arif Hussain. Allowing former finance director Hidayatullah Khwaja’s appeal, the bench ordered his acquittal.
Advocate Mohammad Ashraf Kazi, counsel for the acquitted appellant, submitted that he had held the post of the university’s finance director from 1991 to 1996, while the offence occurred in the late 1980s when the accused was nowhere near the scene.
Citing a 2002 Supreme Court judgment, he said the accused appellant also merited acquittal on the benefit of the doubt which, being a rule of prudence, could not be ignored in the dispensation of justice.
Report handed over
The report of Justice Zawwar Hussain Jaffery (since retired) on Hasan Gichki’s death in the Central Prison Karachi last year was on Friday handed over to his brother.
Qambar Ali moved a petition in the high court saying that a judicial inquiry into his brother’s death was conducted by Justice Jaffery of the Sindh High Court and he had reportedly submitted a 100-page report to the provincial home department. However, a copy of the report had not been furnished to him. He wanted to proceed against those responsible for the custodial killing and wanted to ascertain who the report blamed.
Advocate Raja Qureshi, the petitioner’s counsel, stated before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab that Justice Jaffery must have fixed the responsibility for the torture and killing of Hasan Gichki and the petitioner had a right to know his findings.
Additional Advocate-General Zubair Qureshi handed over the report to Mr Qureshi as directed by the bench.
Eid prayers
A division bench of the Sindh High Court directed the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) on Friday to immediately close down the Eid shopping festival being organised in Annu Bhai Park in Nazimabad and vacate it for Eid prayers, adds PPI.
The bench comprising Justice Musheer Alam and Justice Arshad Siraj was hearing a petition filed by the Jamaat Ahle Sunnaa Pakistan praying the court to direct the Liaquatabad town municipal administration to end the festival till the 28th of Ramazan.Petitioner’s counsel Abid Rajput submitted that his client organised Eid prayers every year at the Annu Bhai Park. The city government issued a licence to various commercial organisations for holding Eid festivals, causing inconvenience to the residents and those offering Eid prayers in the park.
He prayed the court to direct the city government to grant permission for holding such festivals till the 28th of Ramazan so that arrangements would be taken for offering Eid prayers in the park.
Liaquatabad Town Municipal Officer (TMO) Khalid Riaz assured the court that Annu Bhai Park would be vacated for preparation of Eid prayers.
The court disposed of the petition and directed the city government not to allow any shopping festival in future in such grounds after the 28th of Ramazan.