LARKANA: Court orders launching of new train
LARKANA, Aug 21: The Larkana circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Tuesday asked the federal secretary of Pakistan Railways, Shakeel Durrni, to start a fast air conditioned train from Jacobabad to Karachi by Sept 18 and appear in court on the same day.
The division bench passed the order on a petition jointly filed by Ayaz Soomro and Abdul Hamid Bhurgri, president and general secretary of Larkana District Bar Association, respectively.
The petitioners prayed the court to ask PR to start a fast air conditioned train for Karachi from Jacobabad with stops at Shikarpur, Larkana, Dadu, Jamshoro and Karachi.
They said that shabby train facilities on this route had encouraged private coaches, which left for Karachi every hour.
The court observed that when the train service on the left bank of the river was generating revenue for the railways why it had neglected the right bank route. The secretary said that he would convene a meeting of the PR board and come up with a ‘positive answer’ after seeking permission of the officials concerned for running the train on this route.
The divisional superintendent of PR, Sukkur, and assistant director of PR also appeared in court, which adjourned the case to Sept 18.
ALLOWANCE: The Larkana circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the provincial secretary of finance to appear in court on Sept 18 and file comments on a petition about non-release of corporation allowance to government employees in Larkana.
The division bench comprising Mr Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Mr Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah issued the order on the petition, which was filed by Miskeen Bhutto, a clerk in the Education Department.
The petitioner said that government employees working in different departments had been denied corporation allowance since 1995 when Larkana was declared a corporation.
The petitioner’s counsel, Ayaz Soomro, showed the court documents proving that only employees in the Income Tax Department and PWD had been getting the allowance. Employees in Sukkur, Hyderabad, Jamshoro and Kotri, too, were getting the allowance, he said.
The district coordination officer and the district nazim of Larkana with deputy secretary of finance appeared in court. The deputy secretary sought time to file comments.