Contempt plea filed against CM for going back on his word

Karachi
A contempt plea was filed in the high court against the Sindh chief minister on Wednesday as the provincial government had undertaken in 2011 that it would not convert the status of forest land, but now was allocating 9,600 acres to the army so that it could be distributed among the heirs of martyred or injured soldiers for agricultural purposes.
The Sindh High Court has sought comments from Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on the contempt application.
Filing the application, the Indus Development Organisation submitted that the provincial government had undertaken on March 10, 2011 that it had “no intention whatsoever of converting forest land into revenue and the forest land was not reduced, rather measures were being taken to extend it.”
The applicant’s counsel, Qazi Ali Athar, said the government law officer had undertaken that government was taking every step possible for protecting, conserving and replanting forests in the province, and it would not extend the Yaksala lease after its expiry.
Back then, the Indus Development Organisation had filed a petition on the hazardous effects of deforestation, particularly the deforestation of the riverine forests of Khabrani, Raees Murad, Miani, Matiari, Khanpota, Shah Bukhari, Khipro, Pai, Nawab Mohammad Khan, Kathri, Gundi, Mukhi, Andal Dal and Madaiji.
It had also questioned the summary that had been moved by the Board of Revenue seeking approval for the conversion of forest land into revenue land, contending that it was now allowed under the law.
The counsel submitted that the chief minister had not taken any step in compliance with the provincial government’s own undertaking to protect the province’s forests.
He submitted that instead of complying with the court orders, the chief minister had announced the allocation of 9,600 acres of forest land situated in Golo Daro, Garhi Yaseen to the Pakistan Army for onward distribution among the families of martyred military personnel on an ownership basis.
He submitted that the chief minister had no authority to allot forest land, in fact not even to lease out the statutory protected land under any non-forest use scheme or policy.
He submitted that hand over 9,600 acres of forest land to the army was tantamount to carrying out deforestation and requested the court to issue an order for the cancellation of the allocation.
An SHC division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi observed that court had already taken up the matter in which government has been restrained from allotting any public land, particularly forest land, to anyone in violation of the law, rules and regulations.
The Additional advocate general waived the notice on the contempt application and sought time to seek instructions from the authority concerned.

Heat deaths judicial probe
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notices to advocate general Sindh, the secretary of federal ministry of water and power, national climate change division, National Disaster Management Authority, K-Electric and others on a petition seeking constitution of a judicial commission to fix the responsibility of negligence on federal and provincial authorities over the deaths of more than 1,000 citizens in the recent heatwave tragedy.
Petitioner Shahzad Roy and other social welfare organisations stated that over 1,000 persons had been killed while over 40,000 had suffered from heatstroke in the recent heatwave but the federal and provincial governments had failed to understand seriousness of climate change despite several warnings.
They submitted that the federal and provincial governments did not declare a state of emergency in the heatwave-hit areas until 23 June when over 426 persons had died and a large number of people had suffered from heatstroke.
They submitted that the power utility of the city had failed to provide uninterrupted power supply to the city that could have minimized the suffering of citizens in the heatwave tragedy.
The court was requested to constitute a judicial commission comprising a retired judge of the high court or the Supreme Court to ascertain reasons of the tragedy and fix its responsibility on government functionaries for their failure in taking preventive measures to reduce the deaths of citizens.
Besides, they pleaded, the role of KE in the entire heatwave be examined since it failed to provide uninterrupted supply of power to citizens. The SHC division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi after preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to advocate general Sindh, deputy attorney general, climate change division, ministry of water and power, KE and others and directed them to submit their comments by July 9.

Sugarcane growers case
The SHC issued notices to the secretary agriculture, cane commissioner and a sugar mill management on a petition against delay in payment to a grower.
Ghulam Qadir Jatoi had filed a constitutional petition against the Sindh government submitting that he has agricultural lands at Taluka Pano Akil in Sukkur District cultivating sugarcane.
He stated he supplied the sugarcane to the Kiran Sugar Mills who are legally bound in terms of rule 14 2 of the Sugar Factories Control Rules 1950 to make payment of the sugarcane purchased by them within a period of one week of the demand made by the cane grower.
But, the petitioner added sugar mill did not make the payment of Rs 2,328,490 to him despite that the demand was made by him and thereby failed to fulfill their contractual obligation of the agreement.
The petitioner prayed the court to declare that the petitioner was entitled to the full payment from the Kiran Sugar Mill without any further delay.
The bench, comprising Jusitce Muhammad Aqeel Abbasi and Justice Shaukat Ali Memon issued notice to secretary agriculture, cane commissioner and the managing director and general manger of the sugar mill to file their reply.