-Stresses upon making public places more accessible to DAPs
By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi has on Wednesday reached out to the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) once again in Justice Qazi Faez Isa reference case, which the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) decided not to proceed further into, and said a review appeal will be filed after objections in the reference are rectified.
According to the details, the federal government will have 30 days before it has completed its review appeal to be submitted to the SCP will all objections addressed.
The review appeal has been submitted by the President owing to his constitutional suo-moto action appeal. Also the Prime Minister, federal law minister, advisor on interior and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) also submitted their appeals in the same review case. The SJC had earlier decided not to pursue the case against Justice Isa in the light of its which set aside the court’s earlier directive to the FBR) to conduct an inquiry into three UK properties in the name of his wife and children.
Earlier last month, the top court had accepted the review petitions filed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa and his wife Sarina Isa. The ten-member bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandia, handed a split 6-4 verdict. The bench earlier Wednesday reserved the verdict after all parties to the case concluded their arguments.
The majority decision from the top court said that no action could be taken against the wife and children of Justice Qazi Faez Isa after the apex court withdrew its direction to send Sarina Isa’s case to the FBR.
Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik and Justice Mazhar Alam MianKhel retracted from their decision to send the cases to the FBR in the review petition as previously they supported the decision of referring Sarina Isa’s cases to the tax body.
Separately, President Dr Arif Alvi emphasized the need for making public places more accessible to differently-abled people (DAPs), so that they could not face any problems.
He also directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to increase the number of ramps at public places and construct toilets to facilitate physically challenged people. The president expressed these views while chairing a meeting on providing enabling environment to persons with disabilities, at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The president observed that society needed to adopt a cooperative and friendly approach towards DAPs enabling them to easily perform their routine tasks. The meeting was attended by the vice chancellors and heads of departments of architecture of various universities, chairman, CDA, and senior officials of the government.
The president emphasized the need to improve accessibility for physically challenged people to existing buildings so as to provide a conducive environment to them.
