KARACHI, Sept 13: Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali of the Sindh High Court restrained on Friday the Sindh government from unilaterally cancelling a contract at the behest of NAB authorities.
Chaudhry Gulzar, Executive Director of Dreamworld Resort Ltd, had filed a suit for declaration, specific performance and prohibitory injunction against three defendants, namely the province of Sindh through the Secretary Land Utilization Department, a committee through its Chairman, Justice Syed Abdul Rahman Shah, and the National Accountability Bureau through its chairman.
The plaintiff had claimed that he had bought 144 acres of land on the open market. It was allotted to nine different grantees against the payment of cost of Rs2.8 million.
Subsequently, the Sindh Ordinance III of 2001 was promulgated by the governor, whereby all such grants, transfers and exchanges made from the year 1985 and onwards were cancelled.
Simultaneously, the Ordinance under section 4( 1) & (2) thereof provided for regularization of such cancelled land on payment of additional amount as determined by the committee, and section 5 thereof provided that the land so cancelled would be regularized in favour of the present owners.
The plaintiff through his counsel, K. M. Nadeem, submitted that a committee was duly constituted which determined the additional cost of the land at about Rs25.9 million and made an offer to the plaintiff through a letter dated May 2 for the payment of the additional amount.
The plaintiff accepted the offer unconditionally to resolve the controversy once and for all, but requested for grant of four equal instalments. The request of the plaintiff was acceded to by the government and thus an agreement between the parties came into existence which was partly performed by the plaintiff who paid Rs12.9 million, being 50 per cent of the determined additional cost.
Meantime, the NAB authorities, without lawful authority, began meddling with the agreement concluded between the parties, persuading the government of Sindh to cancel the agreement unilaterally, without showcause notice and opportunity of hearing, the counsel for the plaintiff submitted.
Simultaneously, the plaintiff made an application seeking prohibitory injunction against the provincial government for cancelling the said agreement which stood partly performed.
Notice of the suit and the application were directed to be issued by Justice S. Ahmed Sarwana to the defendants, which were duly served.
On Friday when the suit, along with the application, came up for further hearing before Justice Jamali, Anwar Tariq, Deputy Prosecutor-General of NAB, submitted that he had not received the copies of the plaint, etc, although a notice had been served.
Mohammed Rafiq, Additional Advocate-General Sindh, representing the provincial government and the committee, also made a similar request for adjournment to file a counter-affidavit to the application.
Counsel Nadeem submitted that the threat of taking arbitrary unilateral action against the principles of natural justice was apparent, therefore a restraining order might be passed against the provincial government which was a party to the agreement concluded.
Acceding to the request of the additional advocate-general, the court adjourned the hearing to Sept 30 and simultaneously passed an order that till that date no unilateral action for cancelling the agreement without showcause notice and opportunity of hearing to the plaintiff should be taken by the Sindh government.
APPEAL: A criminal accountability appeal of Asadullah Abbasi, an assistant mukhtiarkar of district Malir, challenging his conviction under section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance came up for regular hearing before a division bench of the SHC, comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jafri.
In the appeal, filed through counsel K. M. Nadeem, the appellant has challenged his conviction and sentence passed in absentia on the alleged ground of absconding in the case.
He had submitted that subsequently he had appeared in the trial court and has been acquitted honourably in the main case, but his conviction on March 19, 2001 for remaining absent before that still stood.
The division bench of the SHC during the course of the hearing framed two legal questions to the effect whether a trial under section 31-A could take place without there being a reference under section 18 of the NAB Ordinance, and whether a person could be sentenced by a court in absentia.
After framing the two legal questions, the court directed issuance of notices to the attorney-general, advocate-general Sindh and prosecutor-general NAB, and appointed A. Q. Halepota amicus curiae to assist the court in determining the two legal questions.
Another division bench suspended the sentence of an accused and granted him bail in the sum of Rs200,000.
The hearing was adjourned to a date after Oct 12 for want of appearance of Abdul Qader Halepota who was appointed amicus curiae by the court who has since become the provincial minister of law.