SUKKUR: The Sindh High Court’s Sukkur bench comprising Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar and Justice Mehmood A. Khan on Thursday admitted a petition against neglect of the historical Lansdowne Bridge leading to its crumbling and occupation by unauthorised people.

The petition was filed by Advocate Sohail Memon who submitted in court that the condition of the bridge was constantly deteriorating but the authorities concerned were paying no attention to its repair and maintenance.

The petitioner has attached some recent photographs of the bridge and pointed out that not only unauthorised people had occupied the historic bridge, but its condition posed great risk to the lives of its users and other people. He recalled that it had started crumbling many years ago and a boy had plunged into the river and was killed while negotiating a ruptured portion of its pavement some four years back.

The petitioner said no repair and maintenance work had been carried out even after that incident.

He said people walking on the pavement had to take extra care in order to escape a fall.

The petitioner also informed the court that unauthorised vendors had raised markets of fish and fruits along both sides of the bridge.

According to the petitioner, the stated reason for the neglect of this bridge was that neither the federal nor the provincial government appeared ready to own it in order to undertake the repair and maintenance.

The Pakistan Railways believed the work was responsibility of the provincial works and services department but the Sindh government maintains that it’s the property of Railways and as such the federal department should undertake the repair and maintenance work.

After looking at the pictures, Justice Gorar observed that the bridge seemed to have been converted to a fish market.

The bench issued notices to the secretaries of Pakistan Railways and Sindh works and services department as well as the divisional superintendent of Railways, Sukkur, and fixed the hearing for January 12.

Hearing of reference against Aijaz Jakhrani put off

The hearing of a reference against Adviser to the Chief Minister on Prisons Aijaz Jakhrani and seven others was adjourned to December 17 as the accused did not appear in the Sukkur accountability court on Thursday.

The accused are facing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference pertaining to the alleged misappropriation of over Rs310 million in the funds meant for the maintenance of machinery and equipment of highways department.

Meanwhile, the hearing of a separate NAB reference against Khanpur town municipal officer Hafeez Pirzada and others was adjourned to Dec 13 after the bureau filed a supplementary reference against them on Thursday.

The main reference pertains to alleged misappropriation of around Rs70m from the funds of the municipality.

Salaries of 266 employees stopped

The salaries of 266 employees of the Sukkur Municipal Corporation (SMC) were stopped for want of procedural formalities after conviction of its commissioner and taluka municipal officer by an accountability court.

The Sukkur accountability court last month sentenced municipal commissioner Tufail Ahmed Soomro and taluka municipal officer Waqar Ahmed Soomro to different jail terms and also imposed heavy fines on them in a case of serious irregularities. They were found guilty of recruiting the 266 employees in grade-I to 15 in 2012 without any authorisation.

In light of the court’s decision, the SMC administration held up salaries of all the 266 employees.

It was stated that Sukkur Administrator Nisar Ahmed has sought advice from the local government secretary whether to retain the employees or not and whether to release the employees’ salary for the previous month(s).

The administrator expressed his optimism that the matter would be settled within a few days.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2020