Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Additional Director General Waqasul Hassan, who had led a raid to arrest former chief minister Pervaiz Elahi from home, has tendered public apology after facing charges of contempt of court.
Speaking to the media at the ACE headquarters on Thursday, the official said a writ petition had been filed before the court of LHC Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, claiming that he had passed comments about the high court or its orders that were tantamount to contempt of court.
He said that he publicly tendered an apology. However, he said he was not apologising because the ACE staff had gone to arrest Pervaiz Elahi, but because he had passed the comments.
He apologised to ‘everyone’ for the comments. The Lahore High Court (LHC) had issued directions to the additional DG and other officials of the ACE and Punjab Police to submit a written apology by Friday over the matter of the raid at the former chief minister’s residence despite a protective bail granted to him.
LHC Justice Tariq Sheikh had come down hard on Waqasul Hassan on Wednesday, warning him that he “will not be spared if contempt is established on [his] part” in former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi’s attempted arrest case. Justice Sheikh was hearing a plea filed by Elahi, seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against ACE officials and the police high-ups for conducting the raid at his Lahore residence despite being granted protective bail in the case.
Replies were submitted on behalf of the respondents, Punjab ACE Director General Sohail Zafar Chatha, Additional DG Waqasul Hassan, SSP Operations Sohaib Ashraf and Model Town SP Ammara Shirazi.
A law officer told the court that there had been confusion regarding the raid process, as the bail had been granted to petitioner Pervaiz Elahi regarding FIR number six of 2023 but the record available with the ACE team had mistakenly mentioned FIR 7/2023.
Justice Sheikh observed that there were two points in the case, one about a mistake as per the ACE officials’ stance and the second about the remarks that the additional DG had passed against the court during the raid. “This court has summoned him in person in connection to his remarks,” the judge observed.
“Sir, neither I committed any contempt of court nor cloud I even think about it,” Hassan told the judge.
The LHC justice then sought the arrest warrant of Pervaiz Elahi that the ACE team had take along with them during the raid. But the law officer parried the question and was unable to produce the warrant. Meanwhile, the petitioner’s counsel Advocate Amir Saeed Rawn showed a video clip on his mobile phone wherein Hassan could be heard commenting about the rist of facing contempt charges.
The anti-corruption official had reportedly made the remarks during the raid at the former CM’s residence when he was informed that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader had been granted bail in the case in which the ACE team wanted to arrest him.
“The anti-corruption official is ready to tender an unconditional apology if this court believes this is a matter of contempt of court,” he maintained.
When Justice Sheikh said no replies had yet been submitted to the court, the law officer said all replies were in his hands “but there are some mistakes in them”.
He said he wanted to submit the replies after vetting them thoroughly.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 5th, 2023.
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