KARACHI, Dec 30: The Sindh High Court vacated on Tuesday its interim order for arrest of M.T. Endeavour, the first lighterage vessel, brought by the owners of grounded tanker M.S. Tasman Spirit to transship its oil cargo.
Dismissing an application moved by insurers of the cargo on behalf of Pakistan Refinery Limited in their suit against the two ships and their owners, Justice Ataur Rahman held that Endeavour was not a sister ship of Tasman Spirit and was not liable to arrest. The two ships and the companies owning them “have their independent legal entities and can own and disown their properties”.
As far as the interim arrest order of Sept 6 in respect of Tasman Spirit, the judge noted that it has been turned into scrap and ordered to be sold. “This question is left open to be decided at the time of the final hearing of the suit”, he observed.
The plaintiff insurance companies have sued the two ships and their owners for Rs 868,296,000 being the claim of PRL and for Rs 15,000,000 on account of other expenses.
NOTICE TO FIA: The Sindh High Court issued notices to the FIA director-general and a deputy attorney-general in a habeas corpus petition for Thursday alleging arrest of a Pakistani journalist, along with two French newsmen on Dec 16, and his confinement without registration of a case or production before a magistrate.
Petitioner Sohail Mehdi Rizvi submitted through Advocates Abid Saqi and Nadeem Qureshi that his brother Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, a free-lance journalist and information secretary of South Asia Free Media Association’s Pakistan chapter, accompanied L’Express reporter Marc Epstein and photographer Jean Paul Guilloteau to Balochistan. He also visited Kandahar along with the French newsmen “to prepare a report on the Taliban activities”.
Rizvi was picked up from Avari Hotel, Karachi, on his return from Balochistan together with the French journalists, who were booked by the FIA for visiting Quetta without a visa, produced before a judicial magistrate and were admitted to bail by the SHC.
Nothing had, however, been heard of Rizvi. He had not been produced before a magistrate nor booked under any law, the petitioner stated.
Two FIA officials appeared in the court on Tuesday and in response to an earlier notice stated that Khawar Rizvi had neither been arrested nor detained by the agency. They know nothing about their whereabouts. They stuck to their assertion when the petitioner’s counsel stated that Rizvi was shown under FIA arrest by the Pakistan Television a number of times.
SURGEON’S PLEA: The Sindh High Court disposed of on Tuesday a writ petition moved by a surgeon of the Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre for his promotion to a vacant post of professor in grade 20.
The petitioner submitted that despite his eligibility for promotion, the vacancy was being advertized by the Federal Public Service Commission. He requested the court to direct the establishment division to consider his case in accordance with the principle of seniority-cum-fitness contained in the Civil Servants Act and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council rules.
Deputy Attorney-General Syed Zaki Mohammad informed the court that the respondent authorities were prepared to consider the petitioner’s case under the relevant statute, and a division bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Roshan Essani and Zia Perwez, disposed of the petition in terms of the DAG’s statement.
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