Bureau (NAB).
They submitted that the Ehtesab Courts were functioning against the law and the Constitution and thus they should be stopped from work till decisions were taken in these cases. The lawyers said the KP government had approved the KPEC Act 2014 to stop corruption in the province. Under the act, the KPEC was to be formed first and its members were supposed to appoint the director general of the commission.
They submitted before the bench that the KPEC started inquiries in corruption cases in 2014 and began arresting the suspects in June the same year. However, they pointed out that the provincial government through the chief secretary issued the notification of the formation of the KPEC in September 2014 while the commission had started taking action even before that in June. They stated that arrests before the notification for the formation of the commission were illegal. The lawyers pointed out that the provincial government had appointed the director general directly against the law.
They said as per the KPEC Act, the members of the commission would appoint the director general. They argued that both the formation of the commission and appointment of the director general was illegal and against the law. “Giving retrospective effect to the KPEC Act and empowering the commission to start inquiries in corruption cases since 2004 was in violation of the Constitution as criminal cases cannot be reopened or inquired from old dates,” one of the lawyers argued. The lawyers argued that there was no system of checks and balances in the KPEC. They said it was a one-man commission as only the director general was empowered.
The larger bench was constituted for deciding all the constitutional cases filed against the various sections of the KPEC Act, appointment of KPEC’s director general and establishment of the commission. It will continue hearing the cases on a day-to-day basis.