A matter of assets: Liaqat Shabab petitions against arrest by Ehtesab Commission

Says detention violates prior high court order regarding investigation

PESHAWAR: Former provincial minister of excise and taxation and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Liaqat Shabab has moved Peshawar High Court against his arrest by the Ehtesab Commission. Shabab said the commission violated the court order while arresting him on May 28.

Liaqat Shabab remained the excise and taxation minister during the tenure of Awami National Party and PPP in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa from 2008 to 2012.  The petition was filed through Shabab’s counsel Qazi Jawad Ihsanullah. The director general, prosecutor general, investigation officer and director prosecution wing of Ehtesab Commission were nominated as respondents.

In his petition, the former minister says the commission served him a notice to appear before the investigation officer. Later he approached the high court through a petition against the process and an order was passed in this regard.

Court order

“It is a well-settled principle of law that this court while exercising its constitutional jurisdiction cannot hamper the investigation at this preliminary stage of inquiry,” Shabab’s petition quoted the previous PHC order. “However, in the circumstances of the case, we while disposing of the instant writ petition would observe the Ehtesab Commission should continue with the inquiry in the matter but the petitioner should not be harassed/arrested, unless any solid evidence is collected against him.”

The current petition states Shabab had provided details of the assets and personal data on the form provided to him by the respondents and after seeking a prior appointment from the Ehtesab Commission, he had gone to its office on May 28. He was formally arrested and detained at the commission’s office.

The petition added if the commission wanted to investigate the former minister, then the chief prosecutor should first prepare a case regarding his assets as required under Section 30 of the Ehtesab Commission Act 2014. It said no order from the commission’s director general was served to Shabab to give him an opportunity to prepare for the charges levelled against him. He was given a week to fill the form – too short a time for the task, added the document.

“It is not [that] the petitioner is not willing or is not cooperating with the investigation agency. The inquiry is at a very initial and preliminary stage,” the petition reads.

However, it is not possible for Shabab to provide any answers about his assets if he is behind bars, said his counsel.

The court was requested to declare the investigation, arrest and the 13-day custody as illegal, without lawful authority, mala fide and against what is held by PHC in a previous petition. The petition requested the release of Shabab and the initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the commission’s DG, the prosecutor general, director investigation wing and investigation officer for flouting the PHC order.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2015.