OUR STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE - The Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed the Punjab chief secretary to appear in person in a petition filed by two widows challenging non-payment of government‘s grant for the last ten years.
The widows Sakina and Mumtaz of Jhang had submitted that the government suspended payment of their financial allowance since 2005. They said the Punjab Ombudsman and the high court had directed the authorities to release the withheld grant but still they were not paid.
During the course of hearing, a district additional collector appeared in the court and said that suspend grant of 32 months had been extended to the petitioners. He pleaded the court to give more time for the payment of the remaining amount. On it, Justice Shujaat Ali Khan expressed displeasure over the government’s functioning and summoned the chief secretary for the next date.
In another case, the LHC had expressed serious concerns over the failure of police for not producing a detainee namely Qurban Rasool. Advocate Muhammad Hayat Kalasan had pleaded the court that North Cantt police was not complying with orders of the court regarding the recovery of Quran Rasool, a local citizen, who went missing in the precinct of North Cantt police.
He told the judge that family of Qurban Rasool, the abductee, was worried about his kidnapping as they did know about him.
Disciplinary proceedings dropped
The Chief Justice Lahore High Court dropped disciplinary proceedings against four judicial officers namely additional district & sessions judges Muhammad Tamar Hayat and Sadaqatullah Khan, senior civil judge Malik Abid Hussain and civil judge class-1 Muhammad Akram Nawab.
Disciplinary proceedings against ex-civil judge Muhammad Younas Awan have also been abated as the LHC Chief Justice accepted his resignation.
Send-off: A formal send-off ceremony was held in judges’ lounge of the Lahore High Court to mark retirement of Justice Shoaib Saeed on Tuesday.
Chief Justice Khwaja Imtiaz Ahmad along with all judges stationed at LHC Principal Seat presented a souvenir and bouquet to the outgoing judge on his formal send-off. Supervisory officers of the court and staff were also present on the occasion.