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Farooq
may lose property in Pak Furore in
House over Jammu Saddam’s
capture dominates House proceedings
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Govt
to review cases of detainees Delimitation panel
only after census report: govt
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Farooq may lose property in Pak Islamabad, December 16 Begum Akbar Jan, Abdullah’s late mother, owned the property worth over Rs 35 million ($620,000) at Mason Road in the heart of Lahore. The building, purchased in 1942 by Akbar Jan, was leased to the Akhtar brothers, who paid a yearly rent until 1976 to her Lahore-based lawyer, Hafeez Hassan. The
Akhtars, however, stopped paying the rent in 1977 and filed a claim for ownership of the property. The civil court ruled against the Akhtars in 1987, after which they appealed in the district court which too was rejected last year and the court ordered the brothers to vacate the property or pay rent according to present standards. When the brothers filed the same appeal with the sessions court in 2002, the judge referred the matter to the Lahore High Court as it was of a political nature and Abdullah, the resident of another country, was involved. The high court has sought the advocate-general’s opinion in the case. The advocate-general has asked for some time to collect the facts after which a date for the next hearing will be fixed. Experts are of the opinion that since it is an inheritance case, Abdullah will have to come to Pakistan to prove that he is the legitimate claimant to the property. “If he fails to do so it will be impossible to have a claim over the property,” legal expert Akhtar Shafi said. The Akhtar brothers, through their lawyer Khwaja Saeeduz Zafar, have asked the high court to invoke Rule 170 of the Defence of Pakistan Rules of 1965, which specifically prohibits payments to a citizen of a country at war with Pakistan. “India is obviously a state hostile to Pakistan and the respondent (Dr Abdullah) an enemy subject and any payment of money to him is very much likely to incur liability of seven years’ imprisonment on the appellant,” the brothers contended in their appeal. According to the high court’s record, Dr Abdullah claims he enjoyed special power of attorney from his mother to receive rent for the building. Dr Abdullah asserted this power made him landlord for the purpose of collecting rent. The lower courts had earlier passed orders in Dr Abdullah’s favour. According to the Akhtar brothers, Akbar Jan had appointed Dr Abdullah her attorney on October 17, 1973, in London and he fabricated a fictitious special power of attorney in his favour on May 29, 1974, that was registered in Lahore. “The fact of the matter is that Farooq Abdullah never came to Pakistan to get his entitlement registered,” they said. However, Dr Abdullah’s lawyer in Lahore, Sheikh Farooq, told the court that if he had come to Pakistan at that time, it would have created a law and order situation and his arrival would not have remained out of the public or the appellant knowledge. “So his attorney was sent to the authorities concerned through the Pakistan High Commission in London,” Dr Farooq Abdullah told the court last week. The Akhtar brothers have also contended that even if there were any special power of attorney, it would have terminated with Akbar Jan’s death. Dr Abdullah, they claimed, was not competent to claim rent.
— IANS |
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Furore in House over Jammu statehood issue Jammu, December 16 The issue came up during a discussion on a resolution moved by Mr Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami (CPM), seeking to preserve the unity and secular character of the state and rejecting its division. Mr Ashwani Sharma (JSM) and Mr Jugal Kishore (BJP) said there was on other solution to the problem than splitting Jammu from the Kashmir valley. Mr Sharma said separate hill development councils had been set up for Leh and Kargil areas of Ladakh, which were also facing discrimination. He took objection to the remarks that the Jammu state was being sought to be created with the two-and-a-half Hindu-dominated districts and said the people of the districts of Poonch, Rajouri and Doda were also complaining of discrimination. Mr Sharma strongly reacted to the remarks of Mr Ali Mohammad Rather and Mr Ali Mohammad Sagar (both NC) that the people had rejected the parties which were demanding statehood for Jammu. He said many MLAs had won by securing only 5 per cent votes in the Kashmir valley. Mr Jugal Kishore accused the Congress of having failed to check discrimination with Jammu in spite of being a coalition partner in the Mufti government. He alleged that the Congress had failed to get the Wazir Commission report implemented for the creation of three new districts in the Jammu division, while the then NC government had ‘overnight’ created three districts for Kashmir and appointed the commission in the case of Jammu. Attacking the Panthers Party, Mr Jugal Kishore said it had shown its true colours by opposing statehood for Jammu. Mr Balwant Singh (Panthers Party) reacted to this by clarifying that the party had demanded reorganisation of the state, but was not in favour of the policy of discriminatory against the region. He quoted region-wise figures of employees in the Secretariat in support of his allegation. Earlier, Mr Ali Mohammad Rather (NC) said the demand for splitting of the state was fraught with dangerous consequences. He accused the RSS and the VHP of being communal and spreading the theory of trifurcation of the state. He pointed out that the BJP leadership in Delhi, including Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, had outrightly rejected the division of the state, but the RSS and the VHP, which were constituents of the BJP, were speaking in a different tone. Mr Rather said it was a constitutional impossibility to abrogate Article 370. Mr Yogesh Sawhney (Congress) strongly opposed the demand for the trifurcation of the state and said the Chief Minister would have been from Jammu had the Congress got more Assembly seats here. In a written reply to Mr Balwant Singh (Panthers Party), the Chief Minister said of the total number of 1,602 employees in the Secretariat, 1,164 belonged to the Kashmir valley, 427 to Jammu and 12 to Ladakh. |
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Saddam’s capture dominates House proceedings Jammu, December 16 Endorsing the views of some members, Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma said Saddam and his Bath Party enjoyed good rapport with India, particularly the Congress. He referred to the presence of a Bath Party delegation at the All-India Congress Committee session in Ahmedabad several years ago and called for treating Saddam as per the norms laid down. However, he was opposed to some of the policies of the ousted leader, especially on the domestic front, but said he fought like a tiger. In an effort to garner support for Saddam, Mr Prem Sagar Aziz remarked that he should be treated the way Alexander had treated Porus. Mr
M.Y. Tarigami said the USA had no right to shape the destiny of Iraq while Mr Babu Singh sought a special discussion on the issue. While Moulvi Iftikar Ansari wondered how people in India could lend support to the “killer of lakhs of people in Iraq and 70,000 Kurds,” some members from the Opposition and treasury benches supported the cause of Saddam. |
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25 kg RDX seized Srinagar, December 16 The seizure of the explosive comes only a day after the BSF recovered 32 kg of RDX and 11 grenades from a hideout in Kupwara forest. The militants were killed and an army jawan injured in the on-going operation in the Nagali Saheb area of Poonch district last night. Two AK assault rifles and some ammunition were recovered from them. With the killing of the two militants, the troops have so far eliminated seven militants in the area since the commencement of the operation on Monday. Five militants were killed in a fierce gunbattle when the troops moved to the area following specific information about the presence of a group of heavily-armed militants. In another incident in Poonch, the spokesman said a civilian identified as Talib Hussain of Kopra
village was killed and another person injured when they were caught in a crossfire between the militants and the security forces at Sajonia Dhok village in
Surankote. He said the police assisted by the Army busted a militant hideout at Chak Shitloo in the Panzla area of Baramula which led to the seizure of 25 kg of RDX and eight hand grenades. Meanwhile, the militants lobbed a grenade on a CRPF party at Lal chowk in Anantnag district of south Kashmir today. However, the grenade failed to explode and was later defused by a bomb disposal squad.
— PTI |
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Govt to review cases of detainees Jammu, December 16 The Mufti was replying to a resolution that was moved by Mr Ali Mohammad Sagar (National Conference) in the Assembly seeking the grant of general amnesty to detainees. He said relatives of youth who had taken the gun in their hands were also keen that they should return to their homes. He said the state government was capable of releasing those against whom there were no serious charges. But the release of hardcore militants could pose a danger and such cases had to be reviewed. He said democracy was a battle of ideas and it was because of this belief that his government released separatists like Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammad Yasin Malik and
G.N. Sumji. At present 514 persons were detained under the Public Safety Act and 412 were in police custody. Earlier, while moving the resolution, Mr Sagar accused the coalition government of having forgotten the promises that were made in its common minimum programme. During question hour, the House witnessed a series of walkouts by certain members and noisy scenes on the issue of alleged hike in the power tariff and reservation of jobs for various categories. NC members grilled the Power Minister, Mr Mohammad Sherief
Niaz, for increasing the power tariff. However, the minister denied any increase and claimed that the tariff continued at Rs 1.30 per unit which was the lowest in the region. Making a statement on the leakage of question papers of the examination for the selection of candidates for the MD, MS and other courses, the Chief Minister said that the process had been cancelled. The government was determined to get to the root of the racket as early as possible and would ensure that the guilty were punished in accordance with the law. |
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Delimitation
panel only after census report: govt Jammu, December 16 Referring to Section 47 of the state Constitution and Section 3 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1957, the commission “has to be constituted after the completion of each census under the provisions existing prior to the amendments made in 2001.” The government said after the amendment the commission had to be set up after the relevant figures of the census were published. Political leaders from the Jammu region have been clamouring for at least five more Assembly seats from the province in view of the higher population and area than the Valley. At present the Jammu region has 37 seats and the Valley 46. Four are in the Ladakh region. During a recent meeting, the PCC President, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, had with Congress legislators in Jammu he had suggested to them to persuade the government to set up the commission, implement the Wazir Committee report and include Dogri in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. |
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Islamabad, December 16
