LHC seeks police reports in MNA fraud cases

PML-N MNA has been attending National Assembly sessions despite being declared a proclaimed offender

ISLAMABAD:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has sought reports from Lahore’s Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) and the District Police Officer Gujranwala in connection with cheque fraud cases amounting to Rs120 million involving a sitting MNA of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

LHC’s Justice Muhammad Amjad Rafiq order the CCPO Lahore and DPO Gujranwala to submit the reports after the petitioner informed the court that the police is reluctant to arrest PML-N MNA Malik Sohail Khan Kamrial as neither he has applied for pre-arrest bail nor joined the investigation and he has now been declared proclaimed offender. 

“Let the report be requisitioned from the C.C.P.O Lahore … in the matter,” Justice Rafiq stated in the order after the hearing in the cases on July 26. In the second identical petition, the court has separately sought a report from the DPO Gujranwala. 

Petitioner Muhammad Waris told the court that he lodged two separate FIRs under section 489-F (dishonestly issuing a cheque) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Ghalib Market police station and the Model Town police station in Gujranwala against the sitting MNA but “the police being influenced by respondent No.6 (Sohail) is reluctant to arrest him.”

The details of the lawmaker from NA-56 (Attock-II) emerged from two FIRs, subsequent proclamation orders, a request to block his CNIC and the complaints separately registered against him on the Prime Minister’s Citizen Portal.

Surprising as it may seem, the PML-N lawmaker has been attending the National Assembly sessions despite being declared a proclaimed offender by at least two courts of the country in cheque fraud cases. Yet, the police have so far simply preferred to look the other way.

Seeing the police’s inaction, Waris has also intimated NA’s speaker, deputy speaker and the secretary to speaker NA through three separate letters about the cases and legal proceedings. 

Waris, who is the owner of Aslam Oil Traders and complainant in the cases, stated in the FIRs that he supplied petroleum products to Kala Shah Kaku Filling Station whose “sole owner” is MNA Kamrial. The complainant stated that Aslam Oil Traders had to receive Rs120 million from the MNA. 

He added that Kamrial had issued two cheques in favour of Aslam Oil Traders on May 18, 2020 -- an amount of Rs60 million each -- but they bounced when he submitted them to banks in Lahore and Gujranwala the next day. Subsequently, two separate FIRs were registered against Kamrial.

After the police failed to arrest the MNA, Waris lodged an initial complaint on the Prime Minister’s Citizen Portal on March 28, 2021. After receiving no response, Waris said, he re-launched it on June 23, 2021, but to no avail.

Despite all efforts, Waris said he neither received relief nor justice. “The Prime Minister’s Citizen Portal is a total failure,” he said, adding that Kamrial was a sitting MNA and the state had failed to provide justice. He lambasted the police as well, saying they also said they could not do anything as the accused was an influential person.

Waris said he had specifically mentioned in his complaint on the citizen portal that the NA speaker should be intimated for cooperation leading to the lawmaker’s arrest, but nothing had happened so far.

Apart from the police, court and citizen portal, he has requested the high-ups in NA to provide justice, set an example by penalizing the culprit and re-build the nation’s trust in the state and the law.