Arrest warrants issued for interior ministry officials

PHC asks Accountant General Pakistan Revenue to withhold three officials’ salaries.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has issued bailable arrest warrants for the secretary, joint secretary and section officer of the interior ministry for failing to comply with its orders on redeploying Frontier Constabulary (FC) troops to the province.

The court also asked the Accountant General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) to hold salaries of said officials till further orders.

The arrest warrants were issued by a PHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali during a suo motu notice hearing.

The issue surfaced when the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government filed an application with the PHC in May 2012 requesting its interference in relocating around 2,253 FC personnel deployed in Karachi, Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), Islamabad and the tribal areas.

The application was later converted to a writ petition and on November 6 2012, Interior Deputy Secretary Mohammad Mureed told the court the ministry agreed to relocate the troops within two months, however, it failed to do so.

On April 2, the court summoned the secretary, joint secretary and section officer to appear in person and show-cause as to why they should not be charged for contempt of court.

None of the three appeared before the bench on Thursday. Instead, they sent a letter stating it was beyond the PHC’s jurisdiction to deal with the relocation of the FC. Under Article 184 of the Constitution, an issue between the federal and provincial government can only be dealt by the apex court, stated the letter.

The bench observed the previous PHC orders shows the respondents had agreed upon relocating the FC personnel and had requested for time to make the necessary arrangements. Five months later, the ministry is reluctant to comply with the court orders, it noted.

After issuing the arrest warrants, the court ordered a copy of the order sheet be sent to the chief election commissioner as keeping in view law and order in K-P, it would be difficult to hold free, fair and peaceful elections in the absence of FC troops.

On March 3, the Election Commission of Pakistan also sought the intervention of the prime minister and stressed that FC troops should be sent back.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2013.