IHC quashes case against PEC

Court says FIA exceeded authority by registering this case

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has quashed FIR against the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) on the complaint of licence renewal and upgradation based on fake documents, stating that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) exceeded its authority in this regard.

The court has also ordered the PEC to hear the complaint and decide according to its law.

Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir of IHC issued a written decision against the FIR registered by FIA against PEC under corruption provisions.

The court declared the registration of the case by FIA as exceeding the authority and dismissed it.

The court said in the judgment that the forum for hearing complaints under Section 27 of the PEC Act is the council itself.

Any violation in renewal or upgradation of engineers' licences can be looked into by the council itself, it added.

A court will look into the matter when the engineering council sends a criminal complaint, it further stated.

Justice Tahir, while issuing the verdict at the request of the engineering council, said that the registration of FIR was an excess of authority by the FIA.

The PEC has the authority to inquire into such matters, hence the FIR lodged with the FIA Special Investigation Unit is dismissed, he declared.

It should be noted that there was a complaint of licence renewal and the upgradation of fake documents with the connivance of officials of the PEC, on which the FIA conducted an inquiry in 2016 and registered a case in 2017 on the complaint of citizen Razzaq Ali Bhatti.