SHC halts construction of building on University Road

The Sindh High Court has halted the construction of a multi-storey building on a safety area where gas pipelines were laid on University Road until further orders.

The interim order came on a petition by the management of a private school against the construction in front of its premises.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the school was located on University Road near Safari Park where some portion of the land was reserved as a safety area with gas pipelines underneath it.

He submitted that the builder had illegally carved out land in the safety area and started construction there.

The court appointed its nazir as a commissioner to inspect the site and submit a report. The court issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers and the builder and in meantime ordered status quo on the construction of the building.

Human trafficking

The SHC taking notice of the non-arrest of a man accused of involvement in human smuggling of children directed the home secretary to appear in person for an explanation. The court was informed during the hearing appeals of convicts in a human smuggling case that one foreign national Denis Charles and other co-accused were not appearing before the court after their release on bail and had left the country. The defendants were sentenced to seven years in prison in 2002 having found guilty in the human smuggling case.

The court took notice of the non-appearance of the accused and inquired the investigation officer as why red-warrants were not against the accused.

The FIA counsel submitted that necessary documents were not issued to the federal government by the home department because of which proceedings for the red-warrant could not be started. The court directed the home secretary to appear in person and explain the delay in the process.

New ATC judges

The apex court’s monitoring judge for anti terrorism courts, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, directed the provincial government on Saturday to expedite the process of appointing judges for six ATCs.

He was presiding over a meeting at the Supreme Court Karachi Registry to review the progress of anti-terrorism courts.  The monitoring judge was informed that six anti-terrorism courts were set up at the central prison and the control of the ATCs had been handed over to the home department where the process for the appointment of judges was completed. The meeting also reviewed the progress of the ATCs and directed that sessions judges should hear the cases of possession of illegal weapons, police encounters and attempts to murder where no anti-terrorism courts were established. The meeting was attended by the SHC monitoring judge of the ATCs, the advocate general Sindh, the IGP, the IG Prisons, the prosecutor general Sindh.

Detention cases

The SHC directed the federal and provincial law officers to file comments on petitions against the detention of citizens allegedly by the law-enforcement agencies.

Petitioner Hafeezur Rehman and Muqadar Khan submitted that law-enforcement agencies took away Nadeem Ali and Sarfaraz Khan from Lyari and Bin Qasim areas and their whereabouts were still unknown.