KARACHI, Feb 12: A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justices Azizullah M. Memon and Abdur Rasheed Farooq Pirzada reserved its order on a petition challenging the construction of a flyover on Gizri Road.
Petitioner Salma Iqbal Chandrigar, along with 40 other residents of Khayaban-i-Hafiz, Phase V, DHA, moved the SHC against the construction of the flyover from Submarine Chowrangi to Khayaban-i-Tanzeem on main Gizri Road, DHA.
Their advocate, Umer Soomro, alleged that the chief executive officer of the Cantonment Board Clifton and the administrator of Defence Housing Authority awarded the contract for constructing an overhead bridge to M/s Nespak Pvt Ltd in violation of the Environment Protection Act 2002 without issuing a prior notice to them for suggestions.
The petitioners alleged that the respondents failed to submit a report on the initial environmental examination, environmental impact and assessment of project as envisaged under section 12 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997.—PPI
Bail applications
Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court reserved on Thursday his order on bail applications of an alleged land grabber who occupied a 500-square-yard plot owned by the late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at Malir and a complicit revenue official, adds Our Staff Reporter.
Mohammad Boota allegedly occupied the plot unbeknown to the late premier’s legal heirs. He gifted the plot to his son in 2005 and executed an irrevocable general power of attorney in his favour. Mukhtiarkar Mushtaq Solangi issued a no-objection certificate verifying the ownership of Boota and authenticity of the transaction. The power of attorney was registered in the name of Boota’s son.
The anti-corruption establishment got suspicious and instituted an inquiry into the matter. The plot turned out to be the property of the late premier and Boota was found to have fabricated documents of ownership. Solangi registered the fake entries in the record. Both were arrested and a charge-sheet against them was submitted to the anti-corruption court. Their bail applications were rejected by the trial court and they approached the high court for the concession.
The court reserved its order after hearing Advocate M.A. Kazi for the applicants and Assistant Advocate-General Adnan Karim Memon for the prosecution.
Nazims’ case
A division bench consisting of Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Faisal Arab, meanwhile, adjourned the hearing of petitions moved by sacked taluka nazims of Larkana and Dadu, Qurban Ali Abbasi and Nabi Bux Khan alias Nabban Khan, to Friday for final arguments.
Advocates Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada and Syed Khalid Shah appeared for the petitioners as adjournment was sought on behalf of Advocate-General M. Yusuf Leghari. The petitioners say that they were first suspended and later removed from office for their affiliation with the opposition in gross violation of the provisions of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance. According to the AG, however, the nazims were ousted by votes of no-confidence in accordance with the SLGO.
KESC, Hesco takeover
Advocate Zamir Hussain Ghumro has, meanwhile, served a notice on the federal and provincial governments claiming that electricity generation, distribution, tariff and tax affairs were all provincial subjects under the Constitution and that the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation and the Hyderabad Electricity Supply Corporation, which supplies power to the rest of the province, should be taken over “immediately in accordance with Article 157 of the Constitution”.
The lawyer said the control of electricity was taken over by the West Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) following the establishment of One Unit in 1958 but was not restored to Sindh and other provinces on dissolution of the West Pakistan province in 1969. The 1973 Constitution handed over control and supervision of Wapda to the Council of Common Interests under Article 154 of the Constitution but the authority continued to be controlled by the federal government.
Under Article 157, the notice said, generation and distribution of electricity and determination of its tariff were handed over to the provinces and the federation was vested only with the supportive role buffeting generation and laying inter-provincial transmission lines. The imposition of consumption tax was also within the provincial domain but the provinces had been deprived of this valuable source of revenue, the notice continued. Advocate Ghumro asserted that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority must be disbanded if the constitutional provisions were enforced.
The lawyer put the federal and provincial governments on notice of legal proceedings if they failed to carry out their constitutional mandate.
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