LAHORE – Lahore High Court Justice Farooq Shiekh on Tuesday called Auqaf chief administrator to appear on February 7 on a petition filed by a contractor at the Shrine of Hazrat Farid Ganj Shakar, Pakpattan.
The petition has been filed by Syed Sajid Hussain through Manzoor Ali Gillani submitting that the petitioner suffered a loss on account of closure of four of five main entry gates of the shrine. The petitioner says he was awarded shoes-safety (hifazate paposh) contract against the payment of Rs 5.2 million, which he had to recover by collecting shoe-safety fees at the five main gates of the shrine.
He said owing to recent incident of terrorism at the shrine, the authorities had closed down four of the five gates of the shrine whereof his income has come down. He prayed to the court to direct the authorities to either re-open gates or pay back the contract money. Pakpatan Auqaf Zonal Administrator Chaudhry Khalid appeared in the court on Tuesday only to submit that he did not have authority to cancel the contract or open the gates for the contractor’s business. Upon this, the judge called Auqaf Chief Administrator for February 7.
– adjourns Hamesh’s
petition until February 1: A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Tuesday adjourned until February 1, hearing of bail petition of former Bank of Punjab (BoP) president and main accused in the Rs 9 billion BoP loan scam, Hamesh Khan. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted the department’s reply opposing granting bail to Hamesh. The counsel said that the former banker was the main accused in the scam and had issued loans worth billions of rupees on fake documents due to which he should not be granted bail.
Barrister Memona submitted power of attorney on BoP’s behalf for joining the proceedings and sought time for preparing the case, which the court granted. Hamesh’s counsel Mehmood Sheikh criticised NAB’s reply submitting that the case had been investigated by more than one officer and there were more than one version in the case regarding his client. Hamesh has filed bail petition for the second time, as Mehmood had earlier withdrawn the petition on September 29, 2009 on plea that it would be filed afterwards with some amendments.
The accused had withdrawn the petition, as the Supreme Court (SC) had dismissed his request for transfer of his case to another LHC bench. The apex court, while dismissing the transfer application, held that it was prerogative of the LHC chief justice (CJ) to fix the case before any bench. Earlier, Hamesh’s counsel had contended before a division bench headed by former LHC CJ Khawaja Sharif to transfer the case before bench of now LHC CJ Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry who had heard petition of Hamesh’s co-accused Adil Khan. Hamesh was accused of sanctioning an Rs 9 billion loan to the Harris Steel Mills against rules and regulations.
