Peshawar High Court. PHOTO: PPI
Referring to the creation of the Ehtesab Commission, a division bench of Peshawar High Court (PHC) said parallel accountability departments exhausted courts which were overburdened to begin with.
PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser dealt with several corruption-related petitions on Thursday and demanded replies at its next sitting.
One of the petitions was filed by Sardar Ali Raza on behalf of his client Javed Iqbal, who was wanted by the Ehtesab Commission in the recent mining scam.
According to Raza, while Iqbal was appearing before the National Accountability Bureau in the broader mining scandal which made headlines this year, he was issued notices by the Ehtesab Commission in the same case. Iqbal is implicated in a case over the lease of 500 acres of land held by his wife Rukhsana.
Deputy Prosecutor General said after the case was filed by the NAB Liaison Committee, NAB officials were investigating. Raza requested the court to withdraw the notice issued by the Ehtesab Commission since NAB was already investigating his case. The court accepted his plea and declared the notice null and void.
Redundant steps
“In the presence of accountability laws and departments, setting up another institution like the Ehtesab Commission was absolutely redundant,” said Miankhel. He added the parallel accountability process had overburdened the courts immensely.
Meanwhile, the same bench in another case of corruption stopped NAB from arresting Bannu Development Authority former project director Mohibullah.
Mohibullah filed a writ petition through his lawyer Aminur Rahman; claiming NAB had arrested him on March 25, 2014 on charges of misappropriating contracts. He said the PHC granted him bail on December 7, 2014 but he was arrested again.
“My client agreed to return the amount voluntarily but NAB refused to accept his offer. The PHC accepted his bail plea again.” However, Rahman said NAB issued another notice against his client; this time for holding illegal assets. He added the bureau wanted to re-arrest him – a move he said was illegal. “NAB should have conducted a holistic and complete enquiry in the first place,” said Rahman.
The bench stopped NAB from arresting Mohibullah and sought a reply at its next hearing.
Mining in the deep
Another high court bench issued a notice to the K-P government to appear before the court after former minister for minerals Ziaullah Afridi challenged the legality of the Ehtesab Commission’s establishment.
Mudassir Amir, counsel for Ziaullah, informed the bench since June, the EC had been arresting people, before its official date of establishment. “The Ehtesab Commission Act clearly states commission members would appoint its director general yet, the provincial government appointed the DG.”
He said all actions taken by the Ehtesab Commission were against the law and requested the court to cancel them.
He also requested interim bail for the ex-minister. The court issued a notice to the provincial government to submit its reply and appear before the court at its next hearing.
Weapons scam
At a petition hearing, the PHC also issued notices to six officials to appear before the court in the ongoing weapon scam case and also directed NAB to file a reply in this regard.
Petitioners Frontier Constabulary (FC) Commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat, Central Police Office (CPO) DIG Sajid Ali Khan, Dr Salman, former telecommunications DIG Sadiq Kamal Orakzai, Kashif Alam and Abdul Latif Gandapur have been accused of embezzling billions of rupees while purchasing weapons and other equipment for K-P police in 2008-10.
Lawyers representing the petitioners informed the court the suspects had been released by the accountability court. He said the high court upheld that decision. However, NAB issued notices to petitioners to appear for an enquiry yet again, said the panel of lawyers.
NAB prosecutor Jameel Saraf told the court the petitioners refused to appear before the court which was also against the law.
The bench granted NAB 15 days to file a reply in response to the petition and ordered the petitioners to appear before the court on November 4.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2015.
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