KARACHI, July 12: The hearing of a criminal miscellaneous application filed by Asif Ali Zardari against an order of STA Central was put off as senior member of a division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) ordered that the petition should be not placed before him.

The bench comprised Justice S. Ali Aslam Jaffery and Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro. Earlier on Friday another bench of SHC passing interim orders asked the Sindh government not to shift Asif Zardari to Punjab till Monday.

The court also asked the counsel for the accused/applicant and state to inform the court about next date of hearing in the cases against the accused before courts in Punjab.

When the matter came up for hearing, the bench refused hearing and adjourned the matter till July 26 with orders that the matter be placed before another bench of SHC. The bench, however, at the request of counsel for applicant/ accused ordered that accused be kept in Karachi till next date of hearing.

The applicant/ accused challenged the rejection of his application seeking treatment at Ziauddin University Hospital for his lumbar region ailment and confinement at Karachi for such a treatment.

Another bench of the SHC, comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar, on Monday restrained the KBCA from demolishing an alleged encroached extended portion of a plot. The bench was hearing a constitutional petition filed by Ghulam Yousuf Khan against the chief controller of KBCA, deputy controller buildings, Jamshed Town.

The petitioner impugns a demolition notice issued to him on Feb 12 by KBCA. The notice maintains that petitioner/ owner of plot 270- A, Sector 8-B, Abbsenia Lines has constructed a shed towards adjacent plot 269, thereby encroaching upon the land of the owner of plot 269.

The bench, after hearing the counsel for petitioner, while issuing notice to the respondents restrained the KBCA from taking any adverse action till further orders. -APP