Daily Times

LAHORE: An application has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) to stop Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan from leading his procession to Raiwind, where Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lives with his other
family members.

Advocate A K Dogar filed this application in his already pending constitutional petition against the 2014 sit-in by PTI. He stated that Imran Khan was repeating the same by delivering hateful speeches and generating discord and confrontation among different sections of the society.

He stated that Imran Khan again had started asking the prime minister to step down in the wake of Panama leaks. He requested the court to issue directions to restrain Imran Khan from launching unconstitutional activity of surrounding the prime minister’s Raiwind residence. He said such steps were paralysing the system, besides generating divisive tendencies among different sections of the people of the country.

Political victimisation: LHC Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf on Wednesday restrained the Punjab government from recovering Rs one billion from a private company for allegedly violating the construction contract of Punjab Assembly’s new building.

The judge, while temporarily restraining the government from recovering the amount from the appellant-company, also sought reply from the government within a week.

Justice Rauf issued the stay order on an appeal moved on behalf of Husnain Cotex Private Limited, challenging dismissal of its petition by a civil court.

Appellate counsel Barrister Asjad Saeed submitted that the Punjab government, led by former chief minister Pervez Elahi, had awarded the contract of over Rs 500 million to the petitioner.

He said that the appellant-company, after securing the contract through lawful process in 2008, started construction work on the site. He said almost half of the structure of the assembly’s new building was completed by 2010 when the new government, led by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, stopped the company from further work.

He said that the government had accused the appellate company of defaulting on payments. He claimed that the allegation was false and action was a result of sheer political victimisation.

He said that the government in 2014 opened a fresh tender for the project and started process to recover Rs one billion from the appellant company on account of alleged default. He said that the contract agreement had the remedy to resolve any conflict through arbitration but the government ignored the rules.

He submitted that a civil court initially granted stay to the company against the government’s action, however, withdrew it in final decision, dismissing the petition. He requested the court to set aside verdict of the civil court and restrain the government from recovering the alleged defaulted amount and striking down the contract.

BoP scam: A division bench of Lahore High Court on Wednesday dismissed the bail application of Sheikh Haris Afzal, owner of Haris Steel Mills, and co-accused with his father and others in the Rs 9 billion Bank of Punjab (BoP) scam.

Applicant counsel Asad Manzoor Butt said Haris Afzal had paid due amount to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) through plea-bargain. He said that even after the payment of the due amount, the accused was under custody of the NAB. He requested to issue directions to NAB to release the applicant.

The NAB counsel, while opposing bail application, said that BoP scam, involving Rs 76 billion, was the biggest bank fraud in the country’s history, as big fishes were involved in it. He said that a huge amount was still to be paid to the NAB.

He said that the assessed value of the assets of the applicant was around Rs 5 billion but still there was an amount of Rs 3 billion that was yet to be paid to
the bureau.

Sheikh Afzal and his son Haris Afzal were arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from Malaysia in 2009. According to NAB, Afzal with co-accused Muhammad Munir, Ali Ijaz, Abid Raza and Irfan Ali, in connivance with Hamesh Khan and other officials, allegedly opened 23 fake accounts with forged national identity cards and obtained loan of approximately Rs 9 billion from 2005 to 2007, using fake documentation, bogus collateral, fictitious guarantees and mortgage deeds executed by fictitious persons.

NAB had filed a reference on Sept 27, 2007, against 12 people, including six officials of Bank of Punjab and six other accused in the fraud.