KARACHI, Jan 15: A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Faisal Arab on Thursday gave the federal and provincial governments a last opportunity to submit their comments on a petition challenging Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s arrest, detention and transfer of her custody to the US authorities and seeking her repatriation to Pakistan.
Petitioner Intikhab Alam Suri of the Human Rights Network said Dr Siddiqui is a Pakistani citizen and could not have been sent abroad. If there was any charge against her, she should have been tried within the country.
However, she was surreptitiously picked up by unknown ‘agency’ personnel from Karachi and then made over to the US authorities, who first detained her in Afghanistan and when her illegal detention became public, transferred her to the United States for trial on trumped-up charges. She had already undergone physical and mental torture and was unlikely to recover unless she rejoined her family in Karachi.
As the petition came up for hearing, the law officers appearing for the provincial and federal government again sought adjournment for filing comments. The bench gave them two weeks more but warned that if they failed to come up with their rejoinders within the stipulated period, the court would have to presume that the averments made in the petition were true and proceed to pass an order accordingly.
Arguments on ‘khula’
A federal Shariat Court full bench comprising Chief Justice Haziqul Khairi and Justices Fida Mohammad Khan and Salahuddin Mirza asked the jurisconsults Syed Qambar Abbas, Ikram Hussain Tirmizi, Deedar Ali Jilani and Ibrahim Islam to submit their arguments in writing on the question of divorce and dissolution of marriage by way of ‘khula’.
A petitioner subscribing to the Shia personal law has challenged the provisions of the Dissolution of Marriage Act and the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance for allowing termination of marriage by ‘khula’ or by a judicial decree.
He says that a marriage under the Shia personal law could not be dissolved except by pronouncement of ‘talaq’ by a husband in the presence of his wife and witnesses. He must recite the specific formula prescribed for the purpose. Dissolution of marriage in any other manner is un-Islamic, according to the petitioner.
Damages suit
The court, meanwhile, issued summons in a suit by a pharmaceutical trader against a hospital and its patient for recovery of damages amounting to Rs20 million for allegedly ruining his business. Plaintiff Ehtishamuddin submitted through Advocate Syed Zaki Mpohammad that he was a supplier of the products of a renowned Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer. He supplied medicines to a patient in a Gulshan-i-Iqbal hospital. The drugs were supplied in perfect condition and the hospital acknowledged their receipt. However, the seal of the consignment was found broken subsequently. The patient and the hospital blamed him for the broken seal and instituted proceedings against him, which damaged his reputation and resulted in the cancellation of his agency by his Swiss principals. He said he had been willfully and maliciously defamed by the defendants and they should be directed to pay him Rs2 million for the actual loss suffered by him and for loss of reputation and goodwill.
Shopkeepers’ plea
A division bench consisting of Justices Azizullah M. Memon and Abdul Rehman Farooq Pirzada dismissed petitions moved by the shopkeepers of Shahabuddin Market for a direction to the city district government to shift them back to the market. The petitioners said they were shifted to a makeshift market in the Lines Area pending reconstruction of the market. Nearly a year has since elapsed but there were no signs of construction work at the market site. They said they should be allowed to return pending the implementation of the project. They could be served three days’ notice to migrate to the alternative site provided to them.
CDGK counsel Manzoor Ahmed submitted that it was with great difficulty that the site was cleared for construction work. The project was in the pipeline and occupation of the site is this stage would cause further delay.
Life terms upheld
A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Zia Pervez and Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, meanwhile, upheld the life imprisonment of three drug traffickers. Malik Ajmal, Malik Sajjad and Malik Faisal were booked by the anti-narcotics force for carrying 10 to 20 kilograms of heroin each. They were convicted and awarded life terms by an anti-narcotics court. The Sindh High Court dismissed their appeals and they approached the Supreme Court against the concurring judgments. The court dismissed their appeals after hearing Deputy Attorney-General Amer Raza Naqvi.
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