KARACHI: Army asked not to Dispossess tiller of land
KARACHI, Aug 1: The Sindh High Court restrained the army authorities from dispossessing a petitioner tilling 184 acres of land near Landhi, Karachi, for about four decades. Petitioner Qamaruddin Arain submitted through Advocate Mrs Kausar Anwar Siddiqui that he secured a contract to develop and farm the army land near Landhi in 1972.
His contract had been renewed from year to year since then on payment of enhanced amounts. He also claimed that not only he made the land cultivable but started mechanized farming on it. He installed a tube well, purchased tractors, built a farm house, planted an orchard and also grew fruit and vegetables. The lease amount was paid regularly.
According to the terms of the contract, the lease was terminable only when the contractor became insolvent or violated any of the stipulations. However, he received a notice on May 8, 2008, terminating the lease without assigning any reason. Subsequently, he was asked to sign a paper delivering up the possession of the land. When he refused to affix his signature, his property at the farm was damaged and his ‘autaq’ was set afire. He also alleged incidents of firing in the air. The authorities, he further alleged, wanted to transfer the lease to a retired major.
Deputy Attorney-General Imran Ahmed submitted on behalf of the respondents that the contract was terminated in accordance with its provisions. The petition was not maintainable as contractual obligations could not be enforced in exercise of writ jurisdiction.
A division bench consisting of acting Chief Justice Azizullah M. Memon and Justice Khalid Ali Qazi directed that fresh notices be served on the respondents to file comments before August 6, the next date of hearing, and asked the parties to maintain status quo till that date.
Account suspended
Justice Mrs Qaiser Iqbal ordered a bank branch on Zebunnisa Street to suspend the account of M/s Tessori Trading (Pvt) Limited and accept no cheque presented for encashment till further orders.
The company has instituted a suit through Advocate Abdur Rehman alleging that its directors, Akhtar Khan Tessori and his son, Kamran Tessori, were forced to sign five cheques for obtaining the latter’s release from his kidnappers in mid-June. The first cheque was to be presented on July 10 and the rest after regular monthly intervals but the directors informed the bank of the circumstances in which the cheques were drawn before that date. The bank was asked not to accept the cheque. However, the bank accepted the cheque for encashment when it was presented on July 10.
The plaintiff concern apprehended that its directors may be booked for dishonouring their cheques and requested the court to refrain from accepting them for encashment. The court ordered suspension of the account. Meanwhile, it was submitted on behalf of the police that it was not concerned in the matter and had not been approached to register a case against the directors.
Recall motion
The division bench comprising the ACJ and Justice Qazi, meanwhile, fixed August 5 for detailed arguments in disposal of a petition seeking a direction against the notice for a recall motion issued by the election authorities for removal of the chairman of the Sanjhar Chang union council in the district of Tando Allahyar. The chairman has challenged the notices issued by the Election Commission and the returning officer appointed by it for supervising the no-confidence vote proceedings.
Nine out of 11 members of the union council appeared in court on Friday to assert their support to the recall motion. They said it was their democratic right to vote out the chairman. Tando Allahyar district nazim Raheela Magsi informed the bench that she had been cited as a respondent but had not been furnished a copy of the petition. The bench asked the petitioner’s counsel, M. Ashraff Kazi, to hand over a copy to the respondent. Advocate-General Yusuf Leghari represented the provincial government and Advocate Abu Bakar Zardari the UC members.
Fellowship
The bench asked police officer Dost Ali Baloch to amend his petition to implead all the necessary parties and adjourned the hearing of his petition to August 12. The petitioner alleged that he qualified for a fellowship in criminology at the Kingston College, London, but was discriminated by the government in order to favour officers of its choice.
Asked to assist the court, Assistant Advocate-General Adnan Karim Memon said that the advertisement for the fellowship clearly stipulated that the government retained the right to change the criteria or reject a candidate without assigning any reason.
Rejecting his plea for an interim injunction, the bench, however, declared that further proceedings in the matter would be subject to the outcome of the petition.