The Lahore High Court on Wednesday ordered commencement of legal proceedings against the Tourism Development Corporation Punjab
(TDCP) managing director (MD) for wrongly using the name of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to register five bogus cases against a contractor, Azam Saeed.
Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Saeed, an NCA-qualified architect-contractor who was charged in five bogus cases of theft and corruption during his work in PIA Park at Kashmir Point in Murree, located in front of CM House.
Two reports were submitted in court on Wednesday, one by the Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer (RPO) on court orders, and the other by the Punjab Chief Minister’s enquiry committee probing the matter. Submitting an enquiry report from the CM’s team, Additional Advocate General Hanif Khatana said two cases had been registered at the Anti-corruption Establishment (ACE) against the contractor on directions from the CM, while five bogus cases were later registered against the contractor by Tourism Department MD Saad A Khan, acting with malafide intent and wrongly using the CM’s name.
Khatana said the five bogus FIRs registered at various police stations of Rawalpindi and Taxla against the contractor had now been quashed on the CM’s directives.
Both reports were identical, as the Rawalpandi RPO supported the CM’s enquiry team’s report, which said two cases were still pending in ACE against the contractor, and they were being dealt with lawfully.
Seeing the report, the CJ observed that as the contractor, Azam Saeed, was on bail from the court, he be neither charged in any new case nor he be arrested without the court’s permission. The CJ expressed satisfaction with the ACE regarding ongoing proceedings on the two cases, and said he hoped ACE would remain fair in its proceedings against the petitioner.
Earlier, the tourism MD had claimed in court that he had acted against the contractor on directions from higher authorities, and when asked, he named the CM.
Saeed submitted that he was awarded a contract by the TDCP in July 2009 for development of a park in Murree, in front of the CM House.
He said he had started work on the park together with Kamran Gull, an engineer, but soon after, TDCP officials and men from the CM House started demanding their “share” in the profit and for illegally employing their men as “sub-contractors” in the work, to get clearance of payment by TDCP.
Saeed said when he refused, TDCP unlawfully canceled his contract on May 3, 2010 without paying him five due bills, amounting to Rs 6 million, while Rs 1.8 million, which he had deposited as security with the department, was also not returned to him.
TDCP stopped his payments, while the cheques already issued him bounced – and when he protested against the injustice done him, he was implicated in fake cases by the TDCP MD.
On July 6, 2011 he said a Rawalpindi court granted him and Gull bail, but on the day of their release, they were re-arrested and detained in a new FIR over a theft case, registered by TDCP in the Taxila Police Station.
— CJ refused to hear appeal against CM’s acquittal: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Wednesday refused to hear an appeal against the acquittal of Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif in Sabzazar fake police encounter case.
The CJ observed that he had been appearing as additional advocate general in a connected matter; therefore, in the interest of justice, the appeal should be placed before another judge.
The appeal was filed by Khursheed Khanum, mother of a victim killed in the Sabzazar encounter, challenging the acquittal of Shahbaz Sharif.
According to details, Salehuddin, Wakeel, Waseem, Haider and Abdur Rauf were killed in a police encounter on April 27, 1998, allegedly on Shahbaz Sharif’s directives.
However, an Anti-Terrorism Court acquitted Shahbaz Sharif after the complainant withdrew charges against him.
Praying for acceptance of her time-barred appeal, appellant Khursheed Khanum said her husband and others had accepted money from the accused, including Shahbaz Sharif, but she had not pardoned those involved in killing her sons. She added that now that her husband had died, she was filing the appeal for justice, as her husband had previously barred her from filing a separate appeal.
— directs QCB to decide herbal factory-sealing case: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed Lahore District Coordination Officer Ahad Cheema to refer the case against sealing of a herbal medicine manufacturing factory to the Quality control Board (QCB) to decide it on merit, by hearing the factory owner’s version.
The DCO appeared in Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh’s court during hearing of a petition filed by Muhammad Saleem against the DCO, Punjab Health Secretary and Provincial Drug Inspector Aziz Bhatti for wrongly applying Drug Act 1976 to seal his herbal medicine factory.
The court had summoned the DCO to explain whether or not drug inspectors had been given powers by him to seal the premises of the herbal medicine manufacturing factory, fulfilling formalities given in Section 19(6) of the 1976Drugs Act.
The DCO said drug inspectors were authorised, under the law, to seal factories if any of them was found working in violation of the 1976 Drug Act, but it remained to be seen whether the drug inspector concerned had acted in this case with malafide intent or not.
On this, the judge directed the DCO to refer the matter to the QCB, which would issue a fresh show-cause notice to the petitioner on October 22, and decide the matter within a week after that date.
The judge disposed off the matter with these directions, observing that the petitioner could approach the court again if he had any grievance on the subject
CDGL daily-wagers demand regularisation: Municipal Committee (MC) Employees Welfare Council demanded
regularisation of the City District Government’s work-charge staff. The
demand came up in a meeting of MC Employees Welfare Council held at
CDGL Jinnah Hall, presided over by Chaudhary Liaquat Ali. Attendees demanded the CDGL daily-wagers should be regularised, like
their fellows in other departments of the Punjab government. Quoting
the Finance Department, the speakers said regularisation would bring benefits worth Rs 170 million to the government.
