Supreme Court will resume hearing of suo motu notice, taken over brutal murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kasur as a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar is scheduled to hear the case at Lahore Registry today (Sunday). Setting a precedent to hear public importance matters on Saturdays and Sundays, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard a number of cases on Saturday at Lahore Registry and issued directives in human rights cases.
Appearing before a three-member bench led by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, medical superintends of the public hospitals filed reports along with affidavits in pursuance of the court's earlier directives about existing condition of the hospitals. Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar sent the report to ad hoc committee of PM&DC asking the committee to submit its reply.
Earlier on January 12, the Supreme Court had formed the committee in the chair of former judge of the apex court Mian Shakirullah Jan to run the affairs of PM&DC for provision of good health services to the nation through public hospitals and give a boost to the standard of medical education in Pakistan. Taking up the matter of exorbitant fee structure of private medical colleges, the Supreme Court sent reports along with replies to the ad hoc committee of PM&DC for seeking its opinion.
The apex court has formed a committee of Attorney General for Pakistan and comprising Ayesha Hamid, Dr Faisal Masood, Dr Javed Gardezi, Dr Waseem Hashmi, registrar of the PM&DC and secretary of Young Doctors Association Dr Salman to seek response about a number of medical colleges in private sector over the issue of merit lists and exorbitant fee structure.
The bench of Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was informed that in pursuance of the court's directives, inspection of Lahore Medical and Dental College has been conducted by the committee constituted for this purpose and the reports have been submitted; one by Ayesha Hamid, the commission of the court, whereas others by the members of the committee.
The bench issued directives to hand over copies of these reports to Munawar-us-Salam, counsel for PAMI and Lahore Medical and Dental College, for filing response by Jan 22 before the apex court. Another report was submitted before the bench in pursuance of the court's directives for all the private medical colleges in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab, to provide a list of all those candidates who had applied, finalized and finally been admitted to their respective colleges along with the merit list.
The PAMI submitted reports over the issue on behalf of Rawal Institute of Health Sciences, Islamabad, HBS Medical and Dental College, Islamabad, and Islamabad Medical and Dental College, Islamabad. However, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said that remaining medical colleges are directed to submit reports positively within a week.
The bench also directed while hearing a civil miscellaneous application that a copy of application be provided to Ashfaq Bhullar, counsel for PAMI, so that he can obtain and file comments on behalf of Multan Medical and Dental College, Multan, and Bakhtawar Amin Medical and Dental College, Multan.
Over illegal marriage halls and marquees issue in Lahore, the counsel for Lahore Development Authority apprised the bench that notices have been issued to all the marriage halls/marquees highlighting the violations.
Appearing before the bench, senior advocate Aitzaz Ahsan submitted that the LDA rules provide that the minimum area for a marriage hall must not be less than 4 kanals of land and for marquees it must not be less than 8 kanals which is highly unreasonable because there are certain areas in Lahore where due to heavy urbanization no space is available as such it is not possible to acquire 4 kanals of land for the purpose of a marriage Hall. After hearing the arguments of Ahsan, the bench directed the Director General LDA to consider the aspect of the matter and adjourned hearing of the case till Jan 21 (today) at Lahore Registry.