Suo motu notice found to be fake

A suo motu notice issued last month to a senior police official in Rawalpindi has been discovered to be a fake.

ISLAMABAD: A suo motu notice issued last month to a senior police official in Rawalpindi that sought action against two men has been discovered to be a fake. The entire official machinery in Rawalpindi swung into action following the notice and this led to the victimisation of at least a dozen people.

On August 20, the Superintendent of Police in Rawal Town Zarat Kayani received a notice from two apex court judges Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Tariq Pervez, recommending action against Syed Qamar Shah and Qaiser Kayani under the maintenance of public order. Without verifying the notice, Kayani forwarded it to the station house officer (SHO) in Sadiqabad Malik Yousaf for immediate compliance. However, the notice turned out to be fake.

Interestingly, the name of Justice Nasir was incorrectly written as Justice Naseerul Mulk and though the suo motu action was purportedly taken by these two judges on March 22 it was received by the Rawal Town SP five months later through an unidentified dispatcher.

When the SHO received directions from the SP along with the fake notice, he registered an FIR against Qamar Shah, Qaiser Kayani and ten other suspects under 341 PPC.

They decided to first verify the suo motu notice from the Supreme Court because they had doubts about its legitimacy. For this purpose they approached the deputy registrar office and the director general HR cell’s office and submitted an application for the attestation of the copy of the notice. The Supreme Court staff refused to attest the document and deemed it was fake, because it had not been issued by the court at all.

Both Qamar and Qaiser also checked the online status of the case (number 009/2010 suo motu) but found no record of it. However, one case of similar number 9/2010 is of Bushra Bibi regarding non-payment of benevolent grant to her which was last heard in the court of the CJ two months ago.

When the police took them into custody, Qamar and Qaiser through their counsel Asad Abbasi went to the court of sessions judge Rawalpindi, Raja Pervez Akhtar, for bail but the judge denied them. “I am sorry it’s a matter of the Supreme Court and I will have to face the music if I grant bail,” the judge was quoted as saying.

When contacted by The Express Tribune, SP Zarat Kayani denied being aware of any such notice even though his signatures are  on the document. Both the copies of the fake suo motu notice and the FIR are available with The Express Tribune.

Former chief justice of Pakistan, Justice (Rtd) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui, when contacted said that no other judge of the apex court except for the chief justice could take suo motu action. However, he pointed out that the chief justice could assign a case to other Supreme Court judges for hearing.

According to Justice (retd) Siddiqui, the said FIR has no legal effect and can immediately be quashed since the notice was fake.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2010