PHC prohibits Ehtesab Commission from arresting, harassing secretary

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday stopped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission from arresting and harassing secretary mines and minerals Mian Waheeduddin who is required in a case of misuse of authority and illegal mining.
A division bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth also restrained the Ehetsab Commission from arresting two lease holders of mines in a case of illegal mining. They included Javed Iqbal, husband of a schoolteacher Rukhsana Javed, and Salim Shah.
The Ehtesab Commission had issued warrants for arrest of secretary mines and minerals and two lease holders in the case recently. A team of Ehtesab Commission later raided an official building in search of secretary mines and minerals, but he was not staying there.
The bench issued notice to Ehetsab Commission director general in the petition, directing him to submit reply in the case. Counsels for the petitioner, Abdul Latif Afridi and Muazzam Butt, submitted before the bench that the secretary mines and minerals was innocent as he had registered 264 cases against the persons involved in illegal mining.
It was submitted in the petition that in September 2014, the chief minister directly summoned the secretary, director general and staff of Minerals Department to his office.He introduced them to one Saleem Mughal, a representative of M/S Toney Park, and questioned the action of the department against the company.
It said that the officials explained to the chief minister that the department had taken the notice of illegal and corrupt practices of the firm on the ground that it was excavating antimony from mines at Shoghor in Chitral and selling it in China without any lawful authority and through unfair means.