ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday reserved its judgment on maintainability of the petitions filed by the family members of ex-chief judge Gilgit Baltistan Rana Shamim. Chief Justice Athar Minallah reserved the decision after listening arguments from the petitioner. Rana Shamim’s son Ahmed Hassan Rana appeared before the court on behalf of the petitioners. The court asked the lawyer to read the prayer of his case and asked whether Rana Shamim had asked them to file this case. The petitioner lawyer said that the petition was moved by the daughter in law and grand children of ex-chief judge. The court noted that the petitioner had filed the case for someone else as they were not any affected party. The court subsequently reserved the decision.

SCBAP seeks judicial inquiry

Owing to the loss of precious human lives amid the Murree catastrophe, the SCBAP on Tuesday demanded Judicial Inquiry to probe the facts and fix liability on the responsible for the administrative failure to manage the incident. The SCBAP on behalf of the entire legal fraternity, expressed its sincere condolence with the families of victims perished in the tragic incident. It also demanded to determine that why the timely precautionary measures were not adopted and why the tourists were permitted to enter hillside station and left alone being stranded to death, despite of the early shallow weather warnings being issued by the Met department.

The SCBAP was of the opinion that this tragic incident had yet again unfolded another unfortunate episode, showcasing the authorities’ concerned criminal negligence, lack of administrative aptitude and incapacity of handling simple state of affairs. 

The SCBAP also demanded that those responsible for raising ridiculous and exaggerated prices in terms of accommodation, food, medical and other essential commodities in middle of catastrophic conditions and tried to take absurd benefits  in absence  of management  must also be booked  and taken to task so as to avoid any such situation in future.

“Such petty handling of tourists will surely have adverse effects on the tourism industry and is damaging the overall tourism narrative of the Country.   Above all, even after such a heart wrenching incident, it is very unfortunate that the so-called aides of the government are bluntly busy in defending the grave administrative failure at the cost of 23 odd lives, which is highly condemnable” said the press statement issued by SCBAP.