Law is for the poor, rich don’t even bother: CJP

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday said it had become a culture that law was enforced on the poor only and no one dared question the influential. He said democracy and good governance meant being answerable to the people. The CJP said this while heading a three-member Supreme Court bench including Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, which was hearing a case involving corruption and irregularities in the Pakistan Railways. Justice Hussain observed that the Supreme Court would not have interfered in the administrative affairs had parliament fulfilled its obligations. Justice Parvez said ‘corruption’ was now considered a right. The court expressed dismay over the Railways chairman’s absence, and directed him to ensure his personal appearance on the next hearing. The court directed the Defence and Interior secretaries to submit detailed reports over the Railways land under the possession of security forces. The court directed Railways Board Secretary Shafiqullah, who was present in the court, to submit a comprehensive report on the strategy made or being made to retrieve the land from the illegal possession. The chief secretaries of all provinces had been directed to cooperate with the Pakistan Railways in getting occupied land back. Earlier, the Pakistan Railways and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted a report, in compliance with the court’s order over the occupied land so far retrieved as well as corruption.
The court, however, rejected the report calling it dissatisfactory. Attorney for Secretary Railways Board Shafiqullah told the court that 87 acres of land had so far been retrieved from the illegal possession, whereas efforts were underway for retrieving the remaining land.
Thousands of acres of PR land still occupied: The Supreme Court was told on Tuesday that some 4,987 acres of Pakistan Railways (PR) land was still occupied by various departments, around 1,568 acres of which was occupied by the security forces alone. In compliance with the court’s earlier orders, PR and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted a report to a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, which was hearing a case of massive corruption and irregularities in the Railways. However, the court termed the report dissatisfactory and ordered submission of a more detailed report by February 27. The court noted that its directions had not been implemented so far. The report stated that 67.635 acres of PR land had been retrieved but 4987.369 acres were still occupied by various departments and the security forces. Regarding the forensic audit, the report stated that 14 firms had responded to PR’s Expression of Interest by February 10, 2012. It said that short-listing of the firms would be completed by March 5, 2012 followed by the issuance of requests for proposals to the selected firms. The report stated that a business train under the auspices of Public Private Partnership has successfully been launched on February 3 between Lahore and Karachi, and the Shalimar Express would be inaugurated on February 24 to run between Lahore and Karachi.