DHA restrained from taking coercive action against seminary students’ hostel

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Karachi

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday restrained the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) from taking coercive action against a hostel of seminary students till further orders. The interim order came on a petition of Syed Fayaz Hussain Naqvi against a DHA’s show-cause notice for vacating the seminary students’ hostel.

The petitioner had submitted that he was running the Jamia Ilmia, a subject property and building that was constructed in DHA Phase IV with an approved plan and the provision of a Madrassa and a hostel. However, he submitted that a DHA official served the notice asking him to vacate the hostel on the grounds that the premises could only be used for teaching, not for residential purposes.

A division bench of the SHC, headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam, issued notices to the deputy attorney-general and the DHA after the preliminary hearing,. The bench also restrained the respondent from taking any coercive action against the petitioner.

Afaq Ahmed’s quashment case: The provincial law officer sought time to file comments on a petition of Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi Chairman Afaq Ahmed, seeking quashment of a kidnapping for ransom case against him.

Ahmed, along with others, is charged with kidnapping the sub-divisional officer of the defunct KDA, Javed Ahmed Baloch, on May 5, 2001, in Landhi. According to the prosecution, Javed Baloch was kidnapped from his office and taken to the MQM-H headquarters Baitul Hamza for the issuance of a possession order in respect of plot ST-7/1 in the Landhi area.

The MQM-H, who was declared absconder by the court in 2001 but is now on bail in the case, could not be tried in the case despite the fact that he had been in jail since April 2004 and was released only recently.

Filing a quashment application through rights activist Syed Iqbal Kazmi, he stated that MQM-H Chairman Afaq Ahmed was incarcerated for more than seven years and he was implicated in more than a dozen cases due to political motives just to oust him from politics.

He said that the DIG East in July this year had filed statement before the Sindh High Court with regard to the status of pending cases against Ahmed, stating that the MQM-H chief was nominated in nine cases but he was not put on trial by the police due to insufficient evidence or acquitted of the charges.

He said the DIG East did not mention the detail of the kidnapping for ransom case pending against Ahmed since 2001. He said that he was not produced before the trial court in that case despite the fact that he had been incarcerated for over seven years, thus depriving the detainee of an opportunity to seek appropriate remedy in connection with the case.

The court was prayed to quash the kidnapping for ransom case as the same was registered with mala fide intentions. Missing persons’ case: The Sindh High Court issued notices to the Rangers, Home Department and others on petitions against the detention of two persons by law enforcement agencies.

Petitioners Saleh Begum and Razia Bano submitted that their sons Mohammad Mazhar and Saeed Ahmed were picked up by Rangers personnel on December 15 and 12 from Surjani and New Karachi, respectively. They said that the whereabouts of the detainees were not known and feared for the lives of their children at the hands of the law enforcement agencies. The court, after the preliminary hearing of the petitions, issued notices to the Rangers, Home Department and others and called their comments within 10 days.