PHC sets aside conviction of former Pesco chief

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday set aside the six-month conviction of Pervez Akhtar Shah, former chief executive of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), by an accountability court in a contempt of court case.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mrs Irshad Qaiser set aside the conviction after hearing arguments from the lawyer of the convict and the NAB prosecutor.Pervez Akhtar Shah had filed an appeal against his convection and fine of Rs1 million by the accountability court.

During hearing, the appellant’s counsel Muhammad Ijaz Sabi stated that the accountability court headed by judge Asim Imam had convicted him on February 6, 2016.He argued that the appellant is under custody in a reference by NAB, which charged him with possessing illegal assets worth Rs38.4 million. Lawyer Ijaz Sabi submitted that the former Pesco chief on February 1, 2016 submitted an application against what he called degrading behaviour of judge Asim Imam with an administrative judge of the accountability court.

On the same day, he said the administrative judge marked the application for hearing to the judge Asim Imam, against whom the appellant had made serious allegations. He argued that this is against the century-old established principle of administration of justice that “No man should be a judge of his own cause.”

The lawyer requested the court to declare the impugned conviction as void and against the law as the judge while handing down the order misinterpreted section 17 (C) of the NAB ordinance 1999, especially when the allegations were made directly against him and when he failed to record reason of dispensing the ordinary procedure of a criminal trial.

Defending the accountability court’s judgement, the NAB special prosecutor submitted that the attitude of the appellant was very harsh with the judge during the proceedings.The appellant is now facing prosecution in the accountability court in a corruption case.

After completing the corruption investigations against Pervez Akhtar Shah, the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on January 2016 filed a reference with the accountability court charging him with possessing illegal assets of Rs38.4 million. The NAB claimed that the suspect had misused his office and had acquired assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.