The notices were issued by a division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Syed Afsar Shah. The court was hearing a petition filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa through its deputy prosecutor general Muhammad Jamil.
Jamil informed the court that funds had been embezzled by police officials while purchasing weapons and other equipment for the police department between 2008 and 2010. Moreover, four people — including former inspector general Malik Naveed — have already been arrested in the case.
According to Jamil, the six officials had acted negligently and should be ordered to appear before an accountability court. However, the accountability court had refused to summon them.
The officials include former additional IGP and former FC Commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat, former additional IGP operations Abdul Latif Khan, Central Police Office DIG Sajid Ali Khan, former headquarters DIG Muhammad Suleman Khan, the then AIG establishment Khashil Alam, former telecommunications DIG Sadiq Kamal Orakzai.
After hearing the arguments from NAB’s deputy prosecutor general, the court issued pre-admission notices to the officials to submit their replies in the case.
NAB had filed a reference of corruption worth Rs2.03 billion. It claimed that the officials had embezzled the amount while purchasing weapons and other equipment for the police department.
Earlier on November 24, accountability court judge Muhammad Ibrahim Khan said the reference filed by NAB had ‘no sequence effect’. The accountability court had said the status of these six accused has been neither highlighted nor clearly defined in the reference.
As a result, it would remain inactive against the accused. Moreover, it had summoned four others, including former inspector general of police, on November 29 to frame charges in the case. However, charges were not framed because NAB challenged the accountability court’s order in the high court.
On September 11, PHC dismissed a petition which requested the high court to order an accountability court to summon the six serving and former senior police officials in the weapons scam.
The order of the accountability court added the NAB chairman can, as and when he deems fit, present sound justifications as to why the officials were not arrested.
If the court is satisfied with the chairman’s reasoning, it will summon
the officials.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2014.
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