Corruption allegations: Court detains FIA official

FIA additional director denies penning letter accusing court officials and judge of bribery.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday had a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) additional director arrested for a brief period for “playing tricks with the court”, though the official’s lawyer denied that his client had written a letter to the chief justice and the LHC Bar Association accusing a judge and court officials of bribery.

Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu, hearing a habeas corpus petition for the recovery of Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) sub divisional officers (SDOs) Zulfiqar Ali and Muhammad Iqbal from alleged FIA custody, later allowed Additional Director Munawwar Iqbal Ranjha to leave, but directed him to file a statement at the next hearing detailing his assets before and after he started government service.

At the start of proceedings, petitioners’ counsel Advocate Chaudhry Muhammad Rafiq told the judge that Ranjha had sent a letter to the LHC chief justice and LHCBA alleging that the court’s Writ Branch had accepted a bribe to fix the case before Justice Muzahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, who had been hearing the case. It also accused Justice Naqvi of accepting Rs2.5 million by the petitioners to get a favourable decision.

Justice Naqvi had transferred the case after learning of the letter and started suo moto proceedings in the matter.

Advocate Rafiq said that Ranjha had written the letter to discredit the judge and the court. However, Advocate Farooq Bismil, Ranjha’s lawyer, said his client had not written the letter nor detained the Gepco SDOs for alleged electricity theft.

The judge found it odd that the FIA additional director had hired a private counsel rather than use an agency lawyer.

Justice Sidhu, addressing the additional director, said, “Even inspector-rank officials of the FIA accumulate huge property, and now you people are trying to defame the judges and courts.”

The judge ordered that Ranjha be arrested and summoned the station house officers of two Gujranwala police stations where the electricity theft cases were registered against the SDOs. LHC security personnel detained the officer in the court until the SHOs arrived.

The SHOs told the court that wherever they had conducted raids for the recovery of the SDOs, they had been told that the men were in FIA custody.

The judge released the additional director on surety of Rs500,000 and told him to appear again on November 23 (Wednesday) with complete details of his assets before and after joining the service. He also summoned Muhammad Safdar, the Wapda union secretary, and Gepco director (legal) Malik Siddique for Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, the FIA Punjab zone director is to appear before Justice Naqvi on Tuesday for the suo moto proceedings.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2011.