LAHORE The Lahore High Court on Friday set aside the order of returning officer UC-44 Sadhoki, Pindi Bhattian, whereby he (RO) turned down the request of recount of votes. The court ordered for recounting allowing petition of Muhammad Mumtaz Bhatti, a candidate for chairmanship. The court directing the RO officer to decide the application of the petitioner afresh strictly in light of Rule 36(5) of the Punjab Local Government (Conduct of Elections) Rules, 2013 through a speaking order after hearing all concerned. The court directed to decide the application within a period of three working days from the date of receipt of the court order. Petitioner counsel Raja Abdur Rehman said that the RO had turned down the petitioner’s request by holding that the same could not be entertained in light of policy of Election Commission of Pakistan and it was also not filed within time. He said that this order was illegal as there was no restriction under Punjab Local Government (Conduct of Elections) Rules, 2013 for filing an application for recount of votes prior to consolidation of results. He requested to declare the RO order null and void and order for recount of votes. Bail pleas rejected: Supreme Court on Friday dismissed bail petition of a woman allegedly involved in kidnapping of girls from Punjab and selling them to brothels in Sindh. Hajra Bibi, the accused petitioner, told the court that police falsely implicated her in a girl’s kidnap case as she had no link with abduction of girl. Prosecutor told the court that Hajra Bibi kidnapped two daughters of Anwar Bibi. However, one of the girls managed to flee the brothel where she was forced to do prostitution. Later, the prosecutor said, the girl appeared before the local magistrate and recorded her statement and nominated Hajra Bibi as her kidnapper and said that she sold her to a brothel for Rs200,000. He quoted the statement of the victim girl that she was raped for a long time at a brothel. After hearing both sides, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry dismissed the bail petition of the accused lady. Meanwhile, the SC dismissed bail petition of drug pusher Ghulam Murtaza. The accused petitioner said that he was a shopkeeper and was never involved in any such crime. He said police implicated him in the case. Prosecutor told the bench that police arrested him red-handed and recovered 2,000 grams hashish from his custody. The prosecutor produced police record before the court. After going through police record, the bench dismissed the bail petition. In another case, the SC dismissed bail petition of seven persons accused of electricity theft. The accused include Muhammad Younas, Manzoor Hussain Shah, Muhammad Manzoor Hussain, Saqlain Abbas, Bilawar, Muhammad Boota and Zahir Abbass. Gujranwala SDO raided at different places in Pindi Bhattian and caught the accused for electricity theft. The accused’s counsel said that they did not steel electricity, they booked on the pressure of opponents. Education cess: The Lahore High Court on Friday set aside “education cess” levied on Lahore Gymkhana and other leisure clubs for being double tax. Different clubs had filed petitions challenging recovery of education cess by the excise & taxation department. The counsel for Gymkhana Club argued that leisure clubs had already been paying 16 per cent sales tax. He said the provincial government had no authority to levy any tax as it was the subject of parliament. Moreover, recovery of the impugned education cess was amounted to double tax.
