KARACHI, Nov 12: The Sindh High Court on Monday once again directed the revenue officials and chairman of the Port Qasim Authority to pay within a week compensation amount to owners whose 69-acre land was acquired by the government for the PQA, in court, or else they would have to face contempt of court proceedings.

A division bench headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar expressed extreme displeasure over the non-compliance of the court’s earlier order and warned the respondents to comply with the court order otherwise “contempt proceedings shall straightaway be initiated against all concerned”.

The bench was seized with the contempt of court application of Rabia and others against Revenue officials Sajjad Hussain Abbasi, Ahmed Shah, Subhan Memon, member of the land utilisation committee and the PQA chairman for flouting the court order of 2004 for payment of compensation to them.

The counsel for the revenue department, Ahmed Pirzada, submitted that the matter for the payment had been processed, but due to certain unavoidable circumstances a cheque for the payment could not be prepared.

He requested the court to grant him one-week time to make payment to the petitioner in terms of the court’s judgment on Aug 19, 2004.

The bench observed: “Although, there is now hardly any justification for granting any further time and to take any lenient view but strictly as a last chance only, and with a caution that in case the order is not complied with and the payment is not made, as noted above, contempt proceedings shall straightaway be initiated against all concerned including the officers present in court and also the Senior Member, Board of Revenue”.

The bench further ordered the respondents to submit a detailed statement giving complete break-up of the payments under different heads.

The court also noted that any attempt to mislead the court and/or to avoid full payments shall also be deemed a contempt of court “with its logical consequences”.

The bench directed the office to give the copy of the court’s order to the BoR counsel so that he may pursue the matter and provide it to the finance and services and general administration secretaries.

The bench also cautioned that in case it was found that the provincial secretaries were instrumental in non-compliance of the court’s Monday order, they may also be dealt with accordingly.

The hearing was adjourned to Nov 19.

On the previous hearing the court had ordered: “It would be in the best interest of the officers responsible, including the senior Member, Board of Revenue, to make payment of the entire amount to the petitioner in court on 12-11-2012 at 12.30pm without fail or else all officers including the senior Member, BoR, shall face contempt of court proceedings for deliberate non-compliance of the court orders”.

The court had further observed: “It may be noted that in addition to the contempt proceedings, the officers who may be found responsible for delay/default, may be ordered to pay compensation for delay in payment to the petitioner out of their own pocket.”