On 02-11-2020, Ch. Imran Hassan Ali appeared before the Supreme Court to represent the Respondents in a Petition for Leave to Appeal. The case pertained to a valuable commercial property at a prime location. The Respondents are the original owners and bona fide purchasers. The Petitioner was aggrieved of a judgment of the Lahore High Court whereby his claim for specific performance of an alleged agreement to sell the property in his favour had been declined. The Supreme Court dismissed his petition.
Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC, successfully represented Konish Enterprise (Pvt.) Ltd. before the Supreme Court of Pakistan in an appeal filed by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. (“PTCL”) against a judgment of the Peshawar High Court. The judgment is reported at PLD 2020 SC 261.
Under a contract with the National Highways Authority (“NHA”), Konish was engaged in the business of planting and maintaining tens of thousands of trees along certain roads in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PTCL started laying an underground optic fibre cable along the same roads and damaged a large number of plants in the process. Konish sued PTCL for damages. The Civil Judge allowed Konish’s claim. The Peshawar High Court upheld the judgment of the Civil Judge. PTCL appealed to the Supreme Court where Konish was represented by Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC.
PTCL argued that the suit filed by Konish was incompetent as proper authority to institute the same, whether by way of the relevant resolution of the Board of Directors or the company’s Articles of Association, had not been produced. The Supreme Court dismissed this objection. Mr. Justice Munib Akhtar, writing for the Court, relied upon Pak Turk Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd. v. Turk Hava Yollari (Turkish Airlines Inc.) [2015 CLC 1] to hold that it was not necessary to produce such an authority in this case.
PTCL also argued that it owed no duty of care to Konish as it had entered NHA’s property under a valid license from NHA and it was impossible to work that license without damaging Konish’s plants. Mr. Justice Munib Akhtar held that a duty of care did exist and that there can be no doubt that the record establishes that PTCL worked its license in a manner that caused injury and damage to Konish.
The Supreme Court dismissed PTCL’s appeal and upheld the judgment for damages in favour of Konish.
The Government of the Punjab, School Education Department, made gross violations of merit in respect of appointment of Educators by misinterpreting the qualifications criteria prescribed by the relevant rules. Some candidates who had been wrongly deprived of appointment despite being fully qualified challenged the rejection of their candidature through a Writ Petition before the Lahore High Court. They were represented by Ch. Imran Hassan Ali. Their Petition was allowed and the High Court declared that they were fully qualified and their candidature had been wrongly rejected.
The Government filed an Intra-Court Appeal before a Division Bench of the Lahore High Court. Once again, Ch. Imran Hassan Ali successfully represented the candidates. The Government’s appeal was dismissed.
The Government then appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. However, on 01-06-2020, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the judgment of the High Court.
The Government has already issued appointment letters to the aggrieved candidates. They have joined service.
We have been engaged to advise Fauji Electric Power Company Ltd. in respect of a dispute with the Government of Balochistan. The dispute involves a vast area of land in Lasbela, Balochistan. It includes legal issues surrounding installation of an oil pipeline by Fauji Foundation’s partner, BYCO/Universal Terminal Ltd., as well as a mining lease.
Ch. Imran Hassan Ali, ASC, had initial success at the Supreme Court on 01-11-2019 at the preliminary hearing of a Constitution Petition that challenges the National Command Authority (Amendment) Act, 2016, as being unconstitutional. After hearing preliminary submissions, the Court issued notice to the Attorney General for Pakistan.
The amendment Act was promulgated to nullify a judgment of the Supreme Court in Shafique Ahmed Khan and others vs. NESCOM etc (PLD 2016 SC 377), which had declared that the rules governing terms and conditions of service of NCA employees were statutory. The Act declares that these rules are non-statutory. It is aimed at creating a Master and Sevant relationship between NCA and its employees, including employees of the 13 strategic organisations that are controlled by NCA. If allowed to stand, this amendment will oust the jurisdiction of the High Courts in cases of wrongful dismissal or removal from service and other grievances of NCA employees.
Update: On 23-01-2020, a differently constituted bench of the Supreme Court disposed of this Constitution Petition after allowing the Petitioner to amend his Writ Petition already pending before the Lahore High Court and directed the High Court to decide the question of vires of the NCA (Amendment) Act, 2016.
Ch. Imran Hassan Ali, ASC, enjoyed double success while representing SKB-KNK Joint Venture before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. SKB-KNK Joint Venture (“the contractor”) built the Rainee Canal for the Water and Power Development Authorirty (“WAPDA”). A dispute arose as to the amount due to the contractor in respect of a certain category of work. The contractor invoked arbitration clause of the agreement. The arbitrators found in favour of the contractor and awarded Rs. 250 million. WAPDA filed an appeal. The Honourable Lahore High Court initially dismissed the appeal in default but then re-admitted it by allowing WAPDA’s time-barred application. The contractor engaged Ch. Imran Hassan Ali, Advocate Supreme Court, to file a Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal in the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Court granted leave to appeal. Eventually, the appeal was also allowed after a detailed hearing and the order of the Lahore High Court was set aside on 13-02-2018 with the consequence that the award of Rs. 250 million in favour of the contractor was upheld.
WAPDA filed a Review Petition and was initially successful in convincing the Court to issue notice to the contractor. Once again Ch. Imran Hassan Ali was instructed by the contractor. After two lengthy hearings, WAPDA’s Review Petition was also dismissed. The Honourable Supreme Court upheld the award of Rs. 250 Million in favour of our client, SKB-KNK Joint Venture.
Ch. Imran Hassan Ali represented the Respondents in four appeals in the Honourable Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench. The case pertains to the ownership and partition dispute between family members over the famous property, 1 Old Jail Road, Rawalpindi. Gatemells Motel is also a part of this property. The property, worth billions, is situated between the District Judicial Complex and the Rawalpindi Golf Club. After hearing both sides, the Court came to the conclusion that it lacked pecuniary jurisdiction to hear the appeals. The cases were transferred to the District Judge for decision on merits.
The Supreme Court has formed a committee to prepare a final draft of planned reforms for Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) while hearing a case regarding the constitutional status of the territory. The committee is headed by the attorney general and includes senior lawyers Ch. Aitzaz Ahsan, Ch. Afrasiab Khan, Salman Akram Raja, Secretary Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the GB law minister.
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Ch. Imran Hassan Ali successfully represented Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (“PMDC”) before the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan, first in a Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal and then in the consequent appeal.
PMDC has been involved in a long-drawn-out legal battle with the Government of the Punjab. The dispute concerns ownership of the surface land of Khewra Salt Mine – the second largest salt mine in the world. The area of land involved is more than 18606 Kanals (2325 Acres approx.). The Trial Court had decreed PMDC’s suit and declared that PMDC was the owner of the said land. On appeal, that judgment was reversed in favour of the Government. PMDC filed a Revision Petition before the Honourable Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench. Unfortunately, instead of deciding the case on merits, the High Court dismissed the petition solely on the technical ground that no resolution of the Board of Directors of PMDC authorising institution of the case on its behalf had been filed at any stage.
PMDC filed a petition for leave to appeal in the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan. Ch. Imran Hassan Ali, ASC, represented PMDC and submitted that there is no statutory provision specifically requiring filing of a board resolution along with the plaint or petition, and the need to file one would have arisen only if and when a specific objection had been taken by the Defendant (Government), which should have been taken at the earliest stage possible. However, the Government had never taken this objection at any stage before the Trial Court or the Appellate Court, therefore, it should not have been allowed at such an advanced stage. He also submitted that the High Court had misapplied some judgments of the Supreme Court while failing to apply some other more relevant ones. After a very lengthy hearing, the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal.
At final hearing of the appeal, the Additional Advocate General for Punjab appearing on behalf of the Government of the Punjab, after an initial attempt to defend the High Court’s order, conceded that PMDC’s petition had been wrongly dismissed on technical grounds. Consequently, the Supreme Court allowed PMDC’s appeal and remitted the case to the High Court for decision on merits.
On 14-03-2018, Ch. Imran Hassan Ali, ASC, successfully represented Sunni Tehreek, a polictical party, before the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Election Commission of Pakistan had cancelled registration of the party ahead of General Elections, 2018, without giving it adequate opportunity to fulfil certain statutory requirements. The Court allowed the appeal and gave the Appellant further time to fulfil the statory requirements for extension of its registration with the Election Commission.
The case is titled Sunni Tehreek vs. Election Commission of Pakistan thr. its Secy. & another (C.A. 199/2018). Further details about the case can bee seen on the Supreme Court website by clicking here.