Cheema’s plea against his arrest dismissed

LHC rules that petition of suspect is non-maintainable

LAHORE: A division bench, headed by Justice Qasim Khan of the Lahore High Court, dismissed a petition filed by former Lahore Development Authority director general Ahad Cheema as being non-maintainable. The appeal was against his arrest by NAB authorities in the Ashiana Housing scheme.

Previously, Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar, the counsel for Ahad Khan Cheema, argued that NAB had arrested him by violating its own laws and without justification. He said Cheema fully cooperated with the bureau and presented all information required in the summons.

The counsel said that Ahad Khan Cheema was transferred from his post as LDA DG three years ago on April 28, 2016. He added records of the said housing project were never in his personal possession, but rather in the hands of the development authority.



The petitioner requested the court to set aside the NAB action of his arrest and order his release.

However, NAB’s prosecutor Rana Arif objected to the maintainability of the plea, arguing that the petitioner was in the bureau’s custody. He asked the court to dismiss the petition as non-maintainable as the arrest could not be challenged during a suspect’s physical remand. The prosecutor argued that NAB arrested the suspect in accordance with the law and all legal requirements had been fulfilled.

He submitted that Cheema was issued summons more than once, but he did not appear before NAB. This prompted the bureau to proceed with its efforts to bring the suspect into custody.

Justice Qasim, dismissing the petition of Ahad Cheema, also issued notices to NAB on the bail petitions filed by former LDA chief engineer Israr Saeed and Arif Majeed Butt.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2018.