SHC moved over ‘harassment by governor’s brothers’

Karachi
The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Sindh Advocate General, Sindh Inspector General, principal secretary to Governor’s House and others on a petition filed by a construction firm against harassment.
Petitioner Raza Ali Abidi stated in his application that he was a director in an engineering firm, Friends Construction Syndicate Limited (FSCL), which granted the contract for the construction of a flyover in SITE area in April 2011.
He alleged that the brother of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, Waqarul Ebad, demanded extortion money from him for smooth progress of the project compelled him to pay Rs2.5 million for its execution.
He alleged that Waqarul Ebad and Amirul Ebad, used the name of the Sindh governor, to compel him to allot a sub-contract of solar electrical lights and poles to their firm RAAS Systems Inc.
The director of FSCL, Abidi, stated in his petition that despite the allocation of the sub-contract the respondent, Amirul Ebad and Waqarul Ebad, had not completed the work satisfactorily and now they were blackmailing him and his company.
Abidi said that respondent brothers were filing complaints to the police and other law-enforcement agencies and he was being harassed on the pretext of this dispute. He requested the court to restrain the official respondents from harassing him.
The division bench headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh after preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to Sindh Advocate General, principal secretary to Governor’s House, Sindh Inspector General, brothers of Sindh governor and others to file their comments by October 21. In the mean time the court directed the official respondents to conduct themselves in accordance with the law.
A day earlier, the governor’s brother, Amirul Ebad had moved the District and Sessions Court West to order the police to register a case against former provincial commerce and industries minister and senior leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Rauf Siddiqui, and two others, including FSCL director Raza Ali Abidi and a Shaaique, for threatening his life.
Amirul Ebad had claimed that the three men were blackmailing him and threatening of dire consequences. He said when he had approached the police station concerned to register a case against the three men but the officials declined.
He claimed the three ‘blackmailers’ had begun threatening him after he was awarded the solar energy contract for Nazeer Hussain University being executed by his Karachi-based company RAAS Systems Inc.
Amirul Ebad had also submitted an application DIG Central Feroz Shah to report the threats to his life, requesting the official to look into the matter and take action against the culprits.
Dr Shehla Amir, the wife of Amirul Ebad, had also approached the police on September 29 to register a case against Rauf Siddiqui and his ‘allies’, seeking protection from the threats to her and her family.
Dr Shehla Amir had alleged that she, her family and her company’s employees were facing serious threats by Rauf Siddiqui and his allies, identified in the application as Shaaique and Raza Abidi, following a monetary dispute.

CNG price case
The Sindh High Court directed the counsel of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to forward OGRA’s recommendations to the federal government for fixing the CNG price.
The court was hearing a petition filed by CNG station owners against fixation of CNG price by the government. The CNG station owners impugned various notifications regarding fixation of CNG price by the government.
The counsel for OGRA said that after determining the price, it was recommended to the federal government. After the federal government’s approval, the authority notified the CNG price.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that neither OGRA nor the federal government had the power to determine the CNG price and the exercise was being done in violation of the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court. The counsel for OGRA counsel submitted that he will forward the recommendation to the federal government and the price will be later approved and notified by the regulatory authority.