KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed the provincial and law enforcement authorities to submit their respective replies in a petition against Rangers for detaining workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement during a raid on the party’s Nine Zero headquarters in Azizabad.
Expressing displeasure over the failure of Rangers to file their response, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh again issued a notice to the director general of the paramilitary troops and other respondents and put off the hearing to April 7.
The petition against the paramilitary troops for raiding the party headquarters and arresting party workers was filed by MQM leader Gulfraz Khan.
The petitioner submitted in the petition that the paramilitary troops raided the party headquarters in Azizabad on March 11 and took away as many as 110 workers, including Muhammad Amir Khan, Yousuf Munir Shaikh, Habib, Muhammad Hanif, Sabir Hassan, Muhammad Aslam Baloch, Syed Ahmed Raza, Mumtaz Ali, Hussain Ali, Mushahid Bashir and Khalid Rasheed.
He stated that the law-enforcers ransacked the party’s headquarters and took away Rs3.5 million.
The petitioner, who is a member of the MQM’s coordination committee, said that the Rangers had kept the activists in illegal detention and they were also being harassed.
The petitioner requested the court to declare their confinement as illegal and direct the paramilitary force to produce them in court.
The home secretary, provincial police chief, Rangers director general, city police chief, heads of the crime investigation department and special investigation unit, and SHO of the Azizabad police station were impleaded as respondents.
Notice to SPSC chairman, others
A division bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar issued notices to the chairman and the controller of examination of the Sindh Public Service Commission and the chief secretary in a petition challenging the appointment of the SPSC chief and the holding of screening tests of the candidates of the combined competitive examination to be held on April 7.
The petition was filed by Mumtaz Ali, a retired grade-18 officer of the revenue department, and Syed Shahbaz Ali Shah Masoomi, a candidate, who was not declared successful in the screening test.
The petitioners, represented by Advocate Syed Shafqat Ali Shah Masoomi, submitted in the petition that there was no provision of screening test in the SPSC rules and it was held without lawful authority.
Their counsel stated that the combined competitive written test on the basis of screening test would be without legal authority.
He further said that unfair means were committed in the screening test by the candidates belonging to political elite class, who were allowed to use smartphones in the examination hall to receive answers from outside.
The counsel asked the court to restrain the SPSC chairman from holding the combined competitive examination on the basis of the screening test.
Besides, he said that there were several discrepancies in the question paper which also contained wrong questions and optional answers.
The counsel said that the appointment of Saleem Bhanwar as the SPSC chairman was illegal as the incumbent did not meet the eligibility criterion laid down in the para 3 (3) of the SPSC.
He prayed to the court to direct the chief secretary to remove Mr Bhanwar from the post of SPSC chairman.
The bench directed the respondents to file their respective replies and put off the hearing to a date to be later announced by the court’s office.
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