MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 22: A full bench of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court here on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to ensure that the artefacts alleged to have been illegally removed from Neelum Valley to Muzaffarabad, should not be removed from their present location, until further orders.
The ad-interim order was passed by the bench, comprising Chief Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, Justice Munir Ahmed Chaudhry and Justice M. Tabassum Aftab Alvi, on a petition filed by Fazal Mehmood Baig and others, through advocate Karam Dad Khan.
Arraying the AJK government, Minister for Health Sardar Qamaruz Zaman, chief secretary, secretary archaeology, secretary health and officials of district Neelum as respondents, the petitioners had also pleaded four others, including a TV journalist, as pro-forma respondents.
The petitioners have charged the minister for health with breach of constitutional provisions, oath of his office and the antiquities law, currently in force, by shifting the stone made tubs, commonly referred to as Kundas, from Neelum valley to Muzaffarabad, in official vehicles.
The petitioners demanded that the state functionaries who had committed penal offence should be punished in accordance with the law.
As an interim relief, they had also prayed that the government be directed to transport the unlawfully removed artefacts back to their original location in Neelum valley.
The bench asked additional advocate general Sardar Resham Khan and advocate Mansoor Pervez, who appeared before the court on behalf of the government and Mr Zaman, respectively, to file their comments and objections, if any on or before 26 November, next date of hearing.
During the proceedings, Mohammad Arif Urfi, correspondent of a private news channel, informed the court, in his comments, that he had personally spotted the Kundas outside a rest-house on the premises of Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) Muzaffarabad, on November 9. Whenever in Muzaffarabad, the health minister resides in that rest-house.
Dr Abdul Rehman, another pro-forma respondent, also submitted his comments, stating that he had coordinated with a team from Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisations, QAU, regarding the survey and documentation of these antiquities in Danna village of Neelum valley between October 11-15.
Mr Rehman placed on record a letter, purported to have been written by the QAU team to the AJK Archeology department, wherein it had been stated that of the two Kundas, recovered in Danna village, “one was in a refined carving, and resembled Gandhara stone Kundas, used for wine making.”