Weapons procurement scam: Petition seeking summons for six officials dismissed (Peshawar city)

Request was filed by NAB against a previous high court order

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday dismissed a review petition seeking directions for an accountability court to summon six high ranking officials in a multi-billion rupee weapons procurement scam. The petition was filed by the National Accountability Bureau.

The review petition, filed by NAB’s deputy prosecutor general, was dismissed by the division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Daud Khan. It was filed against a previous order of the court which dismissed a writ petition against the lower court’s failure to summon these six officials.

The officers were the then AIGP and former Frontier Constabulary commandant Abdul Majeed Khan, former AIGP operations Abdul Latif Khan, DIG Central Police Office Sajid Ali Khan, former DIG headquarters Muhammad Suleman Khan, the then AIG establishment CPO Kashif Alam and former DIG telecommunication Sadiq Kamal Orakzai. However, the previous order of an accountability court said the status of these suspects was neither highlighted nor defined.

When the bench started hearing the review petition, DPG Muhammad Jamil Khan informed the court that NAB filed a reference of Rs2.03 billion in the accountability court. The aforementioned officials, yet to be arrested, were also named in the reference as they were part of the procurement committee to arm the province’s police with modern weapons.

Jamil Khan added a supplementary reference had also been filed with further evidence against these six officials. However, the accountability court failed to issue summons in order to frame charges against them.

The high court, after hearing the arguments, dismissed the review petition.

Not the first occasion

On March 25, NAB’s petition seeking the summoning of these six officials was dismissed for a second time.

A similar petition was previously dismissed by the PHC on September 11, 2014, which was filed against the interim order of an accountability court. The latter declined to summon these officials. NAB had earlier arrested former IGP Malik Naveed Khan, former chief minister Amir Haider Hoti’s brother Amir Ghazan Hoti and his relative Raza Ali Khan.

The bail application of Malik Naveed was twice dismissed by the PHC and Supreme Court. However, Raza Ali Khan paid Rs224.4 million under the plea bargain system.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2015.