LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Wednesday adjourned hearing of an appeal moved by a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, against her death sentence on blasphemy charges.
The bench postponed hearing till April 14 due to unavailability of complainant’s counsel.
Nankana police had registered a case on the complaint of Muhammad Salam against Asia Bibi, 45, accusing her of blasphemy.
A sessions court had handed down death penalty to her in 2010.
Later Governor Salman Taseer was gun downed by his official guard for taking up Asia Bibi’s case.
SHOPPING MALL CASE: The Lahore High Court has adjourned hearing of a petition challenging construction of a five-storey shopping mall at the Fortress Stadium, Lahore Cantonment.
The counsel for the government and private respondents in the petition appeared before the court of Justice Ayesha A. Malik and sought time to submit their replies on the subject. The court allowed the request and deferred further hearing till April 17.
A citizen, Nayyer Khan, had assailed the lease agreement carried out between Fortress Stadium Management (FSM) and DUPAK developers for the construction of the shopping complex.
The petitioner submitted that the 60,942 square feet land in question belonged to the federal government but the FSM had leased the land to the private company in 2007 for 33 years.
He said the construction of the plaza was now complete and respondents were handing over possession of shops and offices to buyers.
The petitioner pointed out that the lease agreement showed Pakistan Army as sole owner of the land but the land belonged to the government in fact, which had given it to the ministry of defence in occupancy.
He said the 114 Brigade headquarters had been demolished to construct the shopping plaza.
He said the land being an A-1 property could only be used for defence purposes including barracks, arsenal aerodromes, bungalows for military officers, parade grounds etc.
He said no commercial construction was allowed in cantonment unless the project plan had been duly approved by the Cantonment Board.
The petitioner asked the court to annul the lease agreement being void and also a violation of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act.