Judge requests PHC to transfer case to other court

Weapons’ purchase case

Detained ex-IGP questions former NAB chairman’s signatures

PESHAWAR: A local court on Friday requested the Peshawar High Court to transfer a reference of the alleged embezzlement in procurement of weapons for the police department from her court to another one.

Accountability Court Judge Zarqaish Sani made the request through a letter issued on July 13 to registrar of the Peshawar High Court (PHC). The judge stated that there are many ripe custody cases lying in her court for quick disposal.

“I will be unable to give sufficient time to the reference in which two accused have been coming in custody for more than two years,” the judge stated. 

Some days ago the case was transferred to the court of Zarqaish Sani for quick disposal on the orders of the PHC. Former inspector general of police Malik Naveed Khan and Police Department’s budget officer Javed Khan had been in judicial custody for more than two years in the weapons purchase reference. The former IGP had again filed a bail petition in the PHC on fresh grounds in the case. He argued that he has been in judicial custody for the past 33 months due to perjury of the NAB to deny bail to him on false grounds that the purchased weapons and equipment are substandard.

He submitted that the trial would be started afresh (de novo) in the accountability court after three senior police officers including the then DIG (Headquarters) Peshawar Dr Mohammad Suleman, the then AIG (Establishment) at CPO Kashif Alam and the then DIG (Telecommunications) Sadiq Kamal Orakzai appeared in the trial court though were not summoned by the accountability court in the reference.

The NAB claimed that the six police officers were members of the purchase committee and their names were mentioned in the reference, but the accountability court declined to summon them for the framing of charges by observing that their roles had not been spelt out in the reference.

The retired IGP, who also served as commandant Frontier Constabulary, argued that the cases of three other police officers are pending before the PHC and their trial may continue for several years. He maintained that he had merely signed the papers following the purchase committee’s decision to approve the weapons’ purchase. He noted that the trial court had cleared this aspect of the case.

Malik Naveed, the ex-IGP, insisted there is no evidence against him and the six police officers in the weapons purchase case. He said the NAB wrongly claimed that he in connivance with the six police officers committed the offense.

The former IGP, through a writ petition, also questioned the signatures of former chairman NAB Admiral Fasih Bukhari on the statement of Arshad Majeed, the principal accused and the contractor who had supplied the arms to the police. The NAB claimed that Arshad Majeed became an approver in the case.

He maintained that the signature of the former chairman NAB on the statement of Arshad Majeed was found to be a fake after being tested in a forensic laboratory.