Handcuffs on hold: NAB restrained from arresting ‘defaulting’ gas consumer
Petitioner claims he got a Rs40m bill when the metre read zero
PESHAWAR:
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) from arresting a Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) consumer for not paying his bill.
The division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Haider Ali Khan told the bureau on Thursday that it should not arrest the suspected defaulter, but allowed the authority to complete its enquiry in the case.
Amir Javed, the counsel of Sarfaraz, told the bench there was a Rs80 million bill for his client when the bureau started an enquiry against him. His client later approached a civil court, claiming he was being overcharged. The case is still pending in the lower court.
Sarfaraz is the owner of Bismillah Corporation, a soap manufacturing company in Peshawar.
Javed stated his client was regularly paying his monthly gas bill and the metre reading was zero when he received a previous bill of a whopping Rs40 million. The counsel stated NAB could not determine if a consumer was a willful defaulter.
He produced several Supreme Court and Lahore High Court judgments showing that NAB lacked the authority to recover amounts for SNGPL.
A SNGPL representative told the court that Sarfaraz’s first metre was tampered with and subsequently replaced. However, the second was also reversed, he claimed, adding that the accused had not been paying his monthly bill for the last four years.
The court then ordered that Sarfaraz should not be arrested in this case, but NAB could complete its enquiry. It also declared the petition filed by the accused as premature.
Acquitted
In another case, the division bench of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali acquitted a suspect who was earlier handed a life imprisonment sentence and fined Rs50,000 for smuggling drugs.
Noor Alam Khan, the counsel for Janab Gul, informed the court his client was arrested in the jurisdiction of Pishtakhara police on April 4, 2011. Police recovered 100 kilogrammes of hashish from the vehicle.
Noor said a trial court sentenced his client to life, but missed certain key points in the case. He told the court the driver of the vehicle abandoned the car when stopped by the police at a check post. The law enforcers had been tipped-off that drugs would be smuggled from Bara in Khyber Agency to a city in Punjab.
The counsel of the petitioner said that the suspect was setting next to the driver who fled. He said it was crucial to include the driver in the investigation as he knew more about the vehicle. Noor added his client was a daily wager and was unaware about the hashish which was hidden inside. He pleaded that his client be acquitted in the case. After hearing the arguments, the court acquitted Janab Gul.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2014.
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) from arresting a Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) consumer for not paying his bill.
The division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Haider Ali Khan told the bureau on Thursday that it should not arrest the suspected defaulter, but allowed the authority to complete its enquiry in the case.
Amir Javed, the counsel of Sarfaraz, told the bench there was a Rs80 million bill for his client when the bureau started an enquiry against him. His client later approached a civil court, claiming he was being overcharged. The case is still pending in the lower court.
Sarfaraz is the owner of Bismillah Corporation, a soap manufacturing company in Peshawar.
Javed stated his client was regularly paying his monthly gas bill and the metre reading was zero when he received a previous bill of a whopping Rs40 million. The counsel stated NAB could not determine if a consumer was a willful defaulter.
He produced several Supreme Court and Lahore High Court judgments showing that NAB lacked the authority to recover amounts for SNGPL.
A SNGPL representative told the court that Sarfaraz’s first metre was tampered with and subsequently replaced. However, the second was also reversed, he claimed, adding that the accused had not been paying his monthly bill for the last four years.
The court then ordered that Sarfaraz should not be arrested in this case, but NAB could complete its enquiry. It also declared the petition filed by the accused as premature.
Acquitted
In another case, the division bench of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali acquitted a suspect who was earlier handed a life imprisonment sentence and fined Rs50,000 for smuggling drugs.
Noor Alam Khan, the counsel for Janab Gul, informed the court his client was arrested in the jurisdiction of Pishtakhara police on April 4, 2011. Police recovered 100 kilogrammes of hashish from the vehicle.
Noor said a trial court sentenced his client to life, but missed certain key points in the case. He told the court the driver of the vehicle abandoned the car when stopped by the police at a check post. The law enforcers had been tipped-off that drugs would be smuggled from Bara in Khyber Agency to a city in Punjab.
The counsel of the petitioner said that the suspect was setting next to the driver who fled. He said it was crucial to include the driver in the investigation as he knew more about the vehicle. Noor added his client was a daily wager and was unaware about the hashish which was hidden inside. He pleaded that his client be acquitted in the case. After hearing the arguments, the court acquitted Janab Gul.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2014.