KARACHI, Oct 18: The Sindh High Court on Thursday threw out the petition of the Australian sheep importer against the culling of his imported sheep after he moved the court for its withdrawal.
A division bench headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar dismissed Tariq Mehmood Butt’s petition against the culling of the imported animals as his counsel filed the application for its withdrawal.
At the outset, the bench asked the petitioner’s counsel to review the decision of petition’s withdrawal as the importer’s move seemed to be made under pressure from some quarters.
Appearing again in the court, the counsel said that he had clear instructions from his client for the withdrawal of the petition.
The petitioner had initially sought a restraining order against the culling of 21,000 imported sheep by the city municipal administration.
The SHC on Sept 28 ordered testing of the imported Australian sheep from an internationally acclaimed laboratory after receiving contradictory reports by the federal and provincial government testing facilities regarding the health of the herd.
On Oct 12, the bench had upheld the stay earlier granted on the culling of the imported Australian sheep after a UK lab report was produced in the court. It stated that the imported sheep were free of certain fatal diseases and there was no reason to exclude them from being processed for human consumption on this ground.
The petitioner had purchased the consignment after it had been refused by an importer in Bahrain. He sought an injunction against the disposal of the sheep, contending that the animals were not infected with any disease.
The culling of the sheep was ordered by the provincial livestock and fisheries department after some initial tests had found them infected and unfit for human consumption.
In his petition, the importer prayed to the court to restrain the government functionaries from harassing or arresting him.
While dismissing the petition as it was withdrawn by the petitioner, the court directed the official respondents, the director general of the Sindh Rangers and the chief secretary to ensure that “absolutely no harm be done to the honour, life and properties of the petitioner and that adequate security be provided to the petitioner in accordance with law”.
Student sisters’ case
Another division bench of the high court granted an application seeking court order for the acceptance of BA Part-II examination forms of two student sisters and the issuance of provisional admit cards to them by the University of Karachi.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam was seized with the petition of Mohammad Tariq.
The applicant had sought court injunction to the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) for the issuance of equivalence certificate to his two naturalised Pakistani-Canadian sisters whose exam forms for BA Part-II had not been accepted by Karachi University for want of IBCC documents. He had applied for the IBBC documents in November 2010.
The petitioner, represented by Advocate Nasir Ahmed, impleaded the federal education secretary, IBCC chairman, secretary, and Assistant Secretary Wilayat Khan Khattak, and vice chancellor and controller of examination of Karachi University as respondents.
The two sisters — Hina Fatima and Sadia Tariq — did graduation from the British Columbia School System, Canada in 2009 and 2010, respectively.On Thursday, comments on behalf of the IBCC chief, secretary and AS Khattak were filed in the court.
The respondents submitted that the applicant sisters had not submitted their respective original transcripts, which were required under the law.
They said that the IBCC had sent a letter and several reminders to the British Columbia School System, Canada for verification of the applicants’ transcripts, but no reply was yet received from the institution.
The court put off the hearing for three weeks and directed the respondents to contact the petition and “to proceed with the matter, otherwise the court may examine the material brought on the record and pass order with the assistance of the petitioner’s counsel”.