Daily Times

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza on Friday issued notices to the Pakistan Railways minister and authorities on a petition moved on behalf of the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club’s management, complaining violation of the court’s previous order by the respondents.

Earlier on July 4, the judge had allowed the RPGCC administration to manage its services temporarily without disturbing the possession of Pakistan Railways (PR). The judge had observed, “In order to protect the integrity and the standard of services, as an interim measure, it is directed that the golf, sporting facilities and other services shall henceforth be managed by the petitioner’s club/management without disturbing the possession of the PR.”

He ordered that the respondents should immediately allow the management of the club to restore the sporting facilities for members. He had held, “With consent of the parties, the finance department shall be managed by the committee headed by KPMG, a chartered accountant firm. KPMG senior partner Kamran Yousifi shall head a committee, which shall comprise of RPGCC Director Pervaiz Qureshi and member (finance) Ghulam Murtaza. The committee shall take decision by majority vote and all the parties shall render full assistance to the head of the committee.”

The judge had also directed that that the committee shall remit the salaries of employees as well as money to run day-to-day affairs of the club. He had also directed the PR to file written reply before the court till September 1.

On Friday’s petition, counsel Barrister Syed Ali Zafar submitted that the PR authorities had been committing contempt of court by not de-sealing the administrative block of the club. He informed that the Railways police was still deployed at the club contrary to the court direction, and requested the court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the PR minister, secretary and inspector general of police for violating the order. The judge issued notice to respondents and adjourned the proceedings for indefinite period.

Earlier, the petitioner counsel said that the petitioner had been running the club since 2001 under a valid lease and operation agreement known as the Implementation Agreement July 26, 2001, which was executed between Royal Palm and PR and the unilateral action of Railways was in violation of the terms and conditions of this agreement and the law. He said that the petitioner was running the club according to the terms and condition of agreement.