Ehtesab Commission: EC restrained from arresting Senator Sitara Ayaz’s husband

Lawyer says accountability body harassing the couple over corruption case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court restrained the Ehtesab Commission from arresting Senator Sitara Ayaz’s husband and sought a reply from the accountability commission.

A division bench, headed by PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, was hearing an application filed by Barrister Mudassir Ameer on behalf of petitioner Imran Afridi, Ayaz’s husband, on Tuesday. Earlier, the Ehtesab Commission issued an arrest warrant for Ayaz, a former provincial minister for social welfare and now a senator, over charges of corruption.

Ameer told the court the EC issued a notice to Afridi and asked him to provide details of his business, while the petitioner was not a government official. He said the petitioner was being harassed just because he was husband of the senator, adding the EC also harassed Ayaz and was making repeated calls on her phone.

He requested the court to prevent the EC from harassing Afridi and dismiss its notice to him. The bench accepted the plea, stayed the EC from arresting Afridi and sought reply from the commission.

Earlier, the court had also restrained the EC from arresting Ayaz.

Bail plea dismissed

The same bench also rejected the bail application of Jamshed alias Double Shah, a suspect in a modarba scandal in which 1,700 people were cheated of Rs3 billion.

When the hearing commenced, the applicant’s attorney said his client was accused of operating a medicine company as a front in Hangu. He added the applicant was also accused of going in hiding after collecting Rs3 billion.

He contended Jamshed was running another company in Hangu legally while two other suspects in the scam, including Syed Daud Shah and Fazal Sattar, had opened a company in Peshawar and went in hiding. The lawyer argued the applicant has nothing to do with the medicine company.

However, NAB prosecutor Umer Farooq argued the suspect looted billions in the name of modaraba and other suspects were already in hiding. The bench rejected the bail application.

The same bench in another case, sought reply from National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for re-arresting Fata Disaster Management Authority’s IT Incharge Irfanullah on charges of embezzling fund meant for terrorism-affected people.

Irfanullah challenged his re-arrest at PHC by filing a writ through his lawyer Sahibzada Asadullah.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2016.