SHC asks who gave permission for burial on Islamia College premises

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the chief secretary and the education secretary to apprise the court of who had granted permission for a grave on the premises of the Islamia Government College.

The direction came on an application seeking action against the chief secretary, the East SSP, the Jamshed Quarters police and others for violating court orders in the Islamic Education Trust (IET) case.

The applicant, Syed Mureed Ali Shah, had submitted in the application that the SHC had cancelled the trust deed with regard to appointment of new trustees and restrained a man, Mohammad Hussain, who claimed to be one of the heirs of the property owner, and other illegal trustees from interfering in the IET’s affairs.

It was submitted that although Hussain was not a legal heir of the property owner, Hussain’s legal heirs, after his death, buried him on the college premises in violation of court orders.

The petitioner claimed that official respondents, including the Jamshed Quarters police, did not obey the court orders and allowed burial on the college premises despite the direction of an official assignee of the court which said the land involved in the litigation shall not be given to any party.

Shah also alleged that some private respondents also attacked him when he tried to resist the violation of the court orders. He requested the SHC to initiate contempt-of-court proceedings against the alleged contemnors for violating the court orders.

The petitioner also filed a statement before the court along with photographs of the incident and submitted that the official assignee had also informed the education secretary and other authorities about the incident.

A division bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, issued a notice to the principal of the Islamia Arts and Commerce College (evening) to appear in person and submit comments on the violation of the court directives and official assignee reference.

The high court directed the chief secretary and the education secretary to file comments to apprise the court of who had granted the permission for the grave within the boundary walls of the college and specifically submit a reply to the letter of the official assignee of the court.

The SHC observed that the education secretary shall have to appear before the court in case of non-submission to the reply of the official assignee. The court also directed the Sindh advocate general to file a reply to the reference of the official assignee after taking instructions from the officials and authorities concerned.

The court also directed police officials to take appropriate legal action on the complaint of the petitioner and submit a compliance report to the official assignee within three days.