LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday expressed concern over failure of the police to recover a man allegedly missing for the last 16 years and sought a detailed report from the SSP Investigations.

Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Muhammad Sarwar for the recovery of his son.

Advocate Naik Muhammad Khokhar, the petitioner’s counsel, stated before the court that the son of the petitioner namely Nasir was 15-year-old and a student of tenth class when he was allegedly abducted in 2004. He said Nasir on Feb 21, 2004 returned to his family’s rented house in Garden Town from school, however, immediately went outside again on the pretext of some work but never returned.

The counsel said the police registered the FIR with a delay of one year on Sept 13, 2005 and made no progress in the investigation. He pointed out that the matter was also taken to the commission for missing persons in 2016 where the police opposed it claiming that the matter did not fall within the category of missing persons. Consequently, he said, the commission disposed of the matter after one year.

The SSP Investigations was supposed to appear before the court on Friday, however, an officer of DSP rank appeared instead. He told the court that the office of the SSP investigations had been lying vacant as the new incumbent was yet to take charge of his duties since the transfer of the predecessor.

Justice Chaudhry observed that the matter pertained to the life of a person who had allegedly been missing for the last 16 years. The judge remarked that the police needed to show seriousness in the case.

The judge adjourned the hearing for Oct 27 and directed the SSP Investigations to appear in person along with a report.

BAIL: The Lahore High Court on Friday denied pre-arrest bail to a man facing a charge of gang rape of a woman.

Muhammad Ramzan approached the court for the bail before arrest while denying the allegation. His counsel told the court that the case against the petitioner was fabricated and motivated.

On the other side, the investigating officer told the court that the petitioner along with two other accomplices sexually assaulted a woman in Shorkot. He said the other suspects had not been arrested so far.

After Justice Chaudhry Shehram Sarwar dismissed the bail petition, Ramzan tried to flee but the police arrested him.

illegal property tax: The Lahore High Court on Friday restrained the Gujranwala Cantonment Board from recovering alleged exorbitant tax on urban immovable properties from over a dozen petitioners.

Besides issuing the stay order, Justice Shahid Karim also sought replies from the defence ministry, the Punjab government and the Gujranwala Cantonment Board to explain under what law the board was levying the tax on the urban immovable properties in a mechanical and arbitrary manner.

Representing the petitioners, Advocate Sheraz Zaka argued that after 18th Amendment the tax on immovable property fell within the domain of the province and it was the Punjab Urban Immovable Property Act 1958 that could levy the tax on urban immovable property in cantonments. He said the cantonment boards functioning under the armed forces and defence ministry had no jurisdiction to determine the annual value of the building upon which tax was imposed in cantonments.

The counsel argued that under Section 60 of Cantonment Act 1924, the tax levied in a cantonment would be equal to the value levied in any municipality situated in a province, whereas actually the cantonment board had increased the tax in the past three years by more than 20 times to what the petitioners were paying in year 2017.

He argued that the petitioners running their businesses in cantonments had been placed in a disadvantage to their competitors whose businesses were located in municipalities outside the cantonments. The counsel asked the court to set aside the impugned tax recovery notices issued by the cantonment board to the petitioners for being unlawful.

Justice Karim stayed the recovery of the tax and directed the government law officer to seek instructions from the respondents on the questions raised in the petitions by Nov 7.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2020