KARACHI, Jan 4: The Sindh High Court stayed the transfer of the municipal officer of Site Town till the hearing of his petition challenging the local government department order on Jan 15.
TMO Afaq Saeed Khan said in his petition that he was asked to hand over the charge of office to Imran Aslam by an order of the private secretary to the caretaker local government minister, Syed Saleem Ahmed Zaidi. He submitted through Advocate M. Nawaz Shaikh that the private secretary had no authority to order his transfer. Besides, there was a ban on postings and transfers till the holding of elections. In any case, a grade 17 official could not be appointed to a grade 18 post.
A division bench comprising Justices Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui and Rana M. Shamim issued notices to the local government department and other respondents for Jan 15 and suspended the operation of the impugned order till that date.
Film ban questioned
M/s EverReady Pictures have questioned a ban sought to be imposed on the film ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal’ by the Sindh chapter of the Film Censors Board. They said they are the distributors of the film, shot in the United Kingdom and released by them with the permission of the board and the federal ministry of culture six weeks ago. The film was being screened all over the country when the board’s Lahore office prohibited its exhibition. The ban was challenged in the Lahore High Court, which passed an interim injunction against the impugned order. An identical notice was issued by the board’s Sindh office on Jan 3.
Advocates Nadeem Qureshi and Yousuf Moulvi submitted on behalf of the petitioner firm that the ban was sought to be imposed without due process of law and in violation of the legal and constitutional provisions. A division bench has allowed urgent hearing of the petition on Saturday.
Bail granted
Another division bench consisting of Justices Khwaja Naveed Ahmed and Khalid Ali Z. Qazi granted bail to an accused facing an accountability case in the sum of Rs 200,000. Akram Nadeem, an operation theatre assistant in Qatar Hospital, Orangi, was arrested in March 2007 for possessing immovable properties worth Rs4.6 million, which were highly disproportionate to his known sources of income. According to the National Accountability Bureau, he constructed residential buildings on four plots owned by him in various parts of the city.
Advocate Abdur Razzak submitted on his behalf that all four plots were situated in kutchi abadis and were jointly owned by him and his three brothers, though he alone was named as their owner. The plots had been in possession of his family since 1974. He said the NAB reference was based on misreading of evidence and the accused deserved to be released on bail pending his trial.
Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan, meanwhile, admitted to bail a Sunni Tehrik activist accused of extortion and assault. Zahid alias Ghori was arrested in September 2007 for attacking Javed Ayub, proprietor of Shahbaz Hotel in Buffer Zone in the remit of Taimuria police station. He was infuriated when Javed offered him Rs100 as ‘bhatta’ and shot at him. He and his accomplices also took away cash they found in a drawer. His bail plea was dismissed by the trial sessions court.
Plea rejected
The bench comprising Justices Khwaja Naveed and Khalid Qazi, meanwhile, asked the National Accountability Bureau to examine material witnesses and evidence against Sajjad Ahmed, a custodian (‘Muqaddam’) who is alleged to have misappropriated the stocks worth Rs40 million hypothecated by M/s West Pakistan Tank Terminal, Keamari, with the (defunct) National Development Finance Corporation for repayment of a loan. A former NDFC chairman and Sadruddin Ganji, the debtor firm’s chairman, have been named as co-accused.
NAB counsel Ainuddin Khan said there was sufficient evidence on record to incriminate the accused and his release at this stage would prejudice the trial. Directing the NAB to examine the evidence within a month, the bench observed that the accused would be free to move a fresh bail application after the scrutiny.
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