The Lahore High Court on Friday adjourned until first week of September, hearing of a petition seeking compliance of a LHC earlier order to increase benevolent funds of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) employees.
On Friday, the bank’s counsel appeared in court and submitted that the issue has been placed before the board of directors and it would be implemented as soon as the board approved it. Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed is hearing a petition filed by Koqab Iqbal, a retired NBP employee, against NBP President Qamar Hussain, submitting that he did not pay any heed to LHC orders increasing funds of retired employees.
The petitioner said that the order was passed on January 11 but the NBP president is not listening to demands of retired employees. Koqab said that railways and others departments have increased benevolent funds of their retired employees up to Rs 4,000 in view of rising inflation but NBP authorities are reluctant to give the same relief to those people who had served the bank for decades.
He said that the federal government was promising NBP employees since 2003 that they will get a raise in benevolent funds but the promise did not materialise for reasons best known to the government and high ups of the bank. The petitioner said that massive inflation has made the life of retired employees miserable but the bank has closed its eyes to justified demands of employees.
Koqab requested the court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the NBP president for not complying with LHC orders. He also requested the court to issue orders for increasing the funds of retired employees by more than Rs 4,000 immediately so that they might survive in times of hyperinflation.
Hearing of Ashiana Housing Project case adjourned: The Lahore High Court on Friday adjourned hearing of a constitutional petition against Ashiana Housing Project of Punjab government until July 13.
A local advocate, Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafree, through a writ petition has questioned the fairness of project contending only the government’s favoured few were benefiting from it.
The petitioner claimed that although the computerised balloting was in place yet the results of the draws were not being made public.
The law officer representing Punjab government informed the court through a written statement that a transparent procedure had been adopted to choose the deserving people.
Petitioner contended that all the applicants should be present at the balloting ceremony to witness the fairness of the project.
Noting the argument, LHC Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry directed the law officer to hand over the balloting record to the petitioner and adjourned the hearing until July 13.
LHC election tribunal throws out petition against Munj: An election tribunal of the Lahore High Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking disqualification of PML-Q MPA from PP-166, Munawar Hussain Munj, on grounds of non-prosecution.
The petition was filed by Khalid Mehmood Virk, challenging the authenticity of Munj’s graduation (BA) degree.
It may be mentioned that Virk had lost the election, as an independent candidate, to Munj.
The petitioner alleged that Munawar Munj had used unfair means to obtain BA degree from Azad Jammu and Kashmir University. Virk had asked the court to disqualify Munj.
However, on Friday, the tribunal headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial dismissed the petition on grounds of non-prosecution since neither the petitioner nor his counsel appeared before the court.
