SC imposes Rs 1m fine on Punjab govt

ISLAMABAD (APP): The Supreme Court on Monday imposed a fine of Rs one million on the Punjab Government for acquiring the land of a citizen for the construction of a road in 2007 without his permission and paying any compensation.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa heard the case related to the matter. At the outset of hearing, the CJP remarked that how the provincial government had built a road on someone’s land without permission or payment. The petitioner neither gifted the land to the government nor it was acquired in accordance of the law, he noted.
The court expressed annoyance at the Additional Advocate General Punjab and asked why he had filed such a futile case. Public resources and court time were wasted due to such false cases, and genuine cases were also sidelined, he added. The court instructed the provincial government to also pay Rs one million to the citizen as fine.
It should be noted that the Punjab government had built a road on the land of a citizen named Liaquat Ali in Gujranwala in 2007, and the appellate court and the high court had given their decisions in his favour, which were also upheld by the Supreme Court. The court rejected the Punjab Government’s appeal against its decision, and ordered it to pay the compensation to the owner within 30 days as per the current price of the land.
Apex court issues notices on plea challenging census results: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to principal law officer of Pakistan and Balochistan Advocate General in response to a plea challenging the Balochistan census results.
Earlier, the petitioner, Hasan Kamran had invoked jurisdiction of Balochistan High Court (BHC) , however, upon rejection of the plea the petitioner moved to the Supreme Court. Challenging the BHC decision in the matter the petitioner urged the top court to declare the High Court’s August 29 decision as void.
The petitioner is of the view that Balochistan population had been reported to be around 21.7 million till the final phase of the census process. However, in the final report Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in its meeting, the population of Balochistan was reduced to 14.89 million. A three-member SC bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan took up the plea challenging the census results in Balochistan.