SHC seeks details of properties under ETPB

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed a provincial law officer to submit details with regard to properties of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB).

Hearing the appeal against acquittal of ETPB employees in a corruption case, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar asked how private properties could be taken over by promulgating the law.

A counsel for the board submitted that a banking court had acquitted defendants Imtiaz and Abdul Basit in a corruption case pertaining to misappropriation of millions of rupees received from trust properties.

The counsel submitted that the government had promulgated a law to look after the properties of the migrants who had left country after 1971 and the evacuee board had invested the income from the properties in the bank which was misappropriated by the defendants.

He said the trial court acquitted the respondents in the case while the other co-accused were still at large. The high court issued notices to the respondents and directed the counsel to submit details of the properties under the ETPB.

Development charges

The allottees of the Federal Government Employees Housing Society have challenged imposition of additional development charges by the society in the SHC.

The petitioners submitted that the society had already received development charges in 2006 and 2008 but again Rs330,000 was being demanded in the head of development charges, which was illegal.

The petitioners’ counsel, Usman Farooq, submitted that no development work was being carried out in the society but the respondent society was demanding additional charges from the allottees. The high court was requested to direct the respondents to not demand additional charges in the name of development.