Anti-corruption special judge’s ruling: Without inquiry, Punjab ACE can’t register case, arrest accused

ISLAMABAD: The Multan anti-corruption special judge has held that the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab cannot register a case or arrest an accused “without an inquiry” into the complaint under the law and rules.

In its four-page order, a copy of which is available with The News, Judge Asif Majeed Awan wrote that “from the application of the deputy commissioner [Multan] it is abundantly clear that he wrote [to the ACE] for an inquiry and not for registration of a criminal case against the accused [Abdul Ghaffar Dogar, a former federal lawmaker].” The judge last week quashed the case after refusing a 14-day physical remand of the accused, who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The order stated that nowhere in his application dated November 14 has the deputy commissioner mentioned that he has conducted the preliminary inquiry as ex-officio deputy director of the ACE, Multan, or mentioned that in his view there are sufficient grounds to register a criminal case.

“The very subject of this application is ‘for inquiry’ and in the end, he wrote . . . .’the matter is being referred for legal proceedings against all those public servants/officials/officers and private persons who committed fraud (original complaint/application and reports etc attached herewith).. . .”, the order said.

The judge said he was “afraid that the registration” of the case is in violation of ACE Rules 2014, and pointed out that it had been held in 2000 that when the law prescribes a particular manner and procedure in which things are required to be done, the same must be done in that way or not at all.

The court was “of the firm view” that FIR No.14/2020 dated Nov 11 under sections 420/467/468/471 Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with section 5(2)47 Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) is registered in violation of law and is of no consequence against the rights of the accused and his arrest is also in violation of he rules.

The order stated that the application of the Multan deputy commissioner (DC) to the ACE for inquiry shall be deemed pending with the ACE director general who may order further proceedings of the preliminary inquiry in accordance with the law to proceed further as per the relevant law and rules.

The judge wrote that according to the ACE rules, the deputy director and director of the ACE of the Multan region respectively being the concerned officers or even circle office (CO) of the district are primarily the persons who should act regarding the complaints moved to them.

Besides, the judge said, rules provide that a district coordination officer (DCO) of the concerned district government shall be ex-officio deputy director. They further say that the jurisdiction of the ex-officio director extends to his department and attached departments and the jurisdiction of the ex-officio deputy director extends to the whole of the concerned district for the purpose of holding an inquiry and making recommendations to the ACE director general for the registration of a case. The rules further state that if after a preliminary inquiry an ex-officio director or the ex-officio deputy director is of the view that there are sufficient grounds to register a criminal case, he shall refer the case along with its complete record to the ACE head.

The order noted that the case was registered against Dogar and a stamp vendor. The accused was arrested on Nov 15. The ACE pleaded that the stamp paper number 3067 dated April 15, 1998 (agreement to sell for consideration of Rs1,400,000) was required to be recovered from the accused and he is to be investigated regarding the vendor and has to be confronted with in a meeting with the owners of the property, Therefore, it requested the physical remand of the accused for 14 days.

According to the order, Dogar’s counsel submitted that the case is registered with mala fide intent after about 9 years of the alleged occurrence; that only the year and no date and month of the occurrence is mentioned in the FIR; that an undated application by a certain Muhammad Bashir son of Rab Nawaz was moved to the Multan DC; that the DC then addressed an application to the ACE chief for inquiry against the accused; that on this application, the ACE director general vide a letter dated Nov 14 approved the registration of a case against Dogar and the concerned stamp vendor and then the case was registered.

The lawyer said that the whole procedure of preliminary inquiry was bypassed with mala fide intent; that ACE Rules 2014 were blatantly violated; that the registration of the case was illegal and was in violation of the rules and other relevant provisions of the PCA and the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1958; that the agreement to sell is available on the file of a civil court as a decree has already been passed by the civil court of competent jurisdiction in favour of the accused, which is still intact; that the accused may be discharged from the case; and that the petition for physical remand may be dismissed.