ACE reply sought in wheat spoilage case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday restrained the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) from registering an FIR against Chitral’s former food inspector Dinar Wali in a corruption case.

A division bench, headed by Justice Syed Afsar Shah, issued a notice to ACE and sought his reply till the next hearing.

When the hearing commenced on the petition filed by former food inspector through his counsel Syed Ghufranullah, the bench was told that the petitioner was accused of misappropriating Rs19.5 million.

The counsel argued that the wheat stock at district food department was spoiled due to lack of proper storage facility for which his client was held responsible.



He informed the bench that 75 per cent of wheat stock was disposed of on the orders of an inquiry committee constituted in 2014 by the chief secretary while 25 per cent wheat stock was cleaned for which the government paid Rs11.5 million.

He said the committee conducted an inquiry when the charges were levelled against the former food inspector. The committee had revealed in its report that the wheat stock was spoiled due to lack of storage facility. The petitioner’s counsel argued that despite the committee’s report the government terminated his client from service and the case was forwarded to ACE.



The ACE launched an inquiry in 2014, but permission was given to register an FIR against his client on January 1, 2017 in violation of Section 6 of Anti-Corruption Rules 1999, he stated.

The registration of FIR and inquiry shall be completed within two months of filing a complaint, he said and contended that the registration of FIR was illegal and prayed to restrain the government from registering it.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2017.