KARACHI, April 28: The Sindh High Court accepted the petition of private wheat transporters on Friday but asked them to charge Rs 6 less per bag of 101 kilograms.
A number of transporters were awarded contracts for handling and transportation of wheat from various districts of Sindh for the period ending on February 28, 2007. The contracts were awarded after open bidding, which was duly advertised in the press. Wheat worth over Rs 4 billion lying in the open at Kutcha procurement centres was to be loaded and transported by the transporters at the rate of Rs 55.68 per bag of 101 kilograms.
The National Logistic Cell, which had not participated in the open bid, told the provincial food department that under a federal government policy decision, it had the first right of refusal. A provincial government can conduct an open auction only when it refuses to carry out a transportation assignment. The NLC asked the food department to rescind the contracts and offered to transport the commodity at five rupees less per bag than the charges or rates agreed between it and the private transporters.
Additional Advocate-General M Ahmed Pirzada, representing the department, submitted that under the federal government policy, the NLC had the first right of refusal but the petitioners claimed that the cell had not participated in the bid and could claim the right of refusal only after participating in the bid. However, the NLC had offered reduced rates, which would save a lot of public money.
The petitioner contractors offered to charge six rupees less than the agreed rate provided the contracts were honoured. They said contractual obligations had to be fulfilled but they could reduce the rate in the public interest.
A division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mohammad Saeed Athar, allowed the petition subject to recovery of reduced charges by the petitioner contractors.
BEACH PARK: Another division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Gulzar Ahmed, asked the city district government to examine the record and state the correct position in respect of about 50 commercial plots of 100 square yards each alleged to have been allotted to private concerns and individuals on space occupied by the Beach Park.
Appearing for the city government, Advocate Manzoor Ahmed said no lease was executed in favour of the allottees but even if the plots were leased out as alleged, the allottees could be given compensation in cash or alternative sites. The public park has been functional for two months and the petitioners never came forward when it was being developed.
The petitioners’ counsel insisted on their rights as leaseholders and the bench asked the CDGK to produce the relevant record and adjourned further hearing to May 11.
Custodial death: Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery of the Sindh High Court, who is holding an inquiry into the custodial death of former chief executive of Lasbela Development Authority, Mohammad Hasan Gichki, recorded the testimony of two more witnesses on Thursday.
Doctors Ghulam Mustafa Memon and Shankar Lal of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Hyderabad, who carried out the histopathological test on the body of the deceased, submitted in response to the summons that they could appear only if served notices through the vice-chancellor of LUMHS. The judge asked the additional health secretary, Capt (Retd) Majid, to ensure their presence on May 2, the next date of hearing, as they carried out the autopsy under a health department notification.
In their testimony, Ibrahim and Manzoor Gichki, cousins of the deceased, who was in custody in Central Prison, Karachi, in a narcotics case, said Hasan Gichki repeatedly expressed the apprehension that he would be killed by the jail authorities. The officials he named had been nominated as accused in the FIR lodged with the police. Advocate Syed Ghulam Shah assisted the inquiry on behalf of Hasan Gichki’s relatives and friends and Assistant Advocate-General Arshad Lodhi on behalf of the provincial government.
Society restrained: The Sindh High Court On Thursday restrained a housing society from building a commercial complex on an amenity plot.
Five residents of Shabbirabad Co-operative Housing Society and Shehri-CBE submitted in a plaint filed through Advocate M. Zahid Khan that plot No 45, SNPA, Block 7 and 8, Shabbirabad, was specifically reserved for a park in the original layout plan of the Karachi Development Authority. The city district government was bound to develop a park on the plot but the Dawoodi Bohra Co-operative Housing Society was intent upon raising a commercial complex on the plot.
The plaintiffs said the proposed complex would deprive them of an amenity and infringe their right to life and quality of life. They sought a declaration, permanent injunction, cancellation of documents and demolition of the structure already raised on the plot. They also requested for an interim restraint order pending adjudication of their suit.
Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, who heard the suit, restrained the defendant co-op housing society from raising further construction and asked the SHC nazir to inspect the site and submit a report by May 15 when the suit would again come up for hearing.
Plea dismissed: A Sindh High Court division bench dismissed an appeal moved by the National Logistic Cell against a single judge’s decree awarding compensation to the heirs of a van driver but reduced the decretal amount.
Deceased Sher Azam was carrying three airhostesses in a PIA van under a contract when an NLC trailer hit the van near Mohammad Ali Society April 11, 1993. The rashly–driven vehicle was coming from the opposite direction. The driver and the three hostesses died on the spot.
Advocate Nasir Maqsood filed a suit on behalf of driver’s wife and their three minor children. The Karachi Development Authority was also implicated as a defendant. Sharea Faisal was under repair and partially closed without any precautionary measure to prevent mishaps.
Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi awarded the plaintiffs a decree for Rs 2.49 million against the NLC and the KDA jointly and severally. The decree and the judgment were challenged by the NLC, and dismissing the appeal, a division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mohammad Athar Saeed, ordered that the decretal amount be reduced to Rs2.11 million as the recoverable damages were miscalculated.
