The Lahore High Court has summoned the shrines secretary at the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) for August 23 to explain his position in a contempt petition filed by a deputy director and other board employees.
Afaq Ahmad, the deputy director and petitioner, has accused the board of ignoring court orders for his restoration. He submitted that he had been appointed on contract in 2009 to a grade 18 post to work on the establishment of Baba Guru Nanak University.
Barrister Syeda Maqsooma Bokhari, the petitioner’s counsel, said a federal cabinet committee had in 2011 approved the regularisation of 61 contractual employees of the ETPB, including the petitioner. But the board only regularised the services of four employees and ignored the rest, she said.
Bokhari said that the board had later terminated the petitioner and other employees. The termination was challenged before the Lahore High Court, which suspended the termination orders. She said that the board had not complied with the court’s orders. She asked that the ETPB be tried for contempt of court.
LHC orders college’s power restored
The chief justice of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed the Model Town Society to restore the electricity connection of Quaid-i-Azam Law College and submit a report to the court by August 22.
The society had cut off dozens of electricity connections, including of the law college, for using domestic connections for commercial purposes.
The petitioner, college principal Nafeer A Malik, submitted that the college had been paying its electricity bills at the commercial tariff. He said that the college’s power supply had been cut off without prior notice. He said that the society had acted illegally without verifying that the college was using a domestic connection. He asked the court to order the MTS to restore the electricity supply.
The chief justice ordered the society to restore the connection and submit a reply at the next hearing. The matter will be taken up along with petitions filed by other commercial institutions.
Airline, travel agent sued for Rs1.2m
A consumer court has issued notices to Metro Express and China Southern Airlines in a suit seeking damages of Rs1.2 million from the companies for allegedly providing faulty services.
Petitioner Pervez Ahmed submitted that he had bought a return ticket to China from the Metro Express office on Davis Road on March 30. He was due to return to Pakistan on April 21, he said, but when he went to pick up his boarding pass at the airport in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, representatives of China Southern Airlines told him that his return ticket had been cancelled due to non-payment.
Ahmed said that he had informed the airline representatives that he had paid in full, but they did not allow him to board the flight. He was forced to purchase a new ticket for the same flight, he said.
The petitioner said that he later contacted China Southern Airlines and Metro Express, but they did not address his grievance. He asked the court to direct them to pay him Rs1.2 million in damages for causing stress.
This correspondent called the Metro Express office, but no one answered the phone.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2013.