PHC extends stay order restraining NAB from arresting serving, retired policemen

Multi-million arms procurement scandal

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the lawyers for six serving and retired police officers to explain at the next hearing whether the superior courts could ask an accountability court to summon suspects when reference was filed and trial commenced.

The court was hearing the case concerning the alleged embezzlement in the procurement of weapons for the provincial Police Department

A two-member bench comprising of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser also extended the stay order restraining the NAB from arresting the police officers in the case till next order of the court.

The court also exempted the police officers from appearing in the court till next order. The exemption was given for security reasons and due to the fact that these senior cops have to perform their duties.

During hearing, NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Additional Deputy Prosecutor General Muhammad Jamil Khan informed the PHC that the NAB chairman had issued warrants of arrest against the six police officers in the multi-billion rupees weapon purchase scam, but the NAB cannot arrest them as the court had issued restraining orders in the case.

The accused cops include the former commandant of Frontier Constabulary (FC) Abdul Majeed Marwat, the then additional Inspector General Police (Operation) Abdul Latif Gandapur who has retired), DIG at Central Police Office Sajid Ali Khan, then DIG Headquarters Peshawar Mohammad Salman, then AIG (Establishment) Kashif Alam and then DIG (Telecommunications) Sadiq Kamal Orakzai. They had filed petitions against the issuance of ‘call-up notices’ to them by the NAB asking them to appear and join investigation in the case.

They got restraining order from the high court through a writ petition in which they prayed the court to restrain the NAB from their arrest and harassment. The NAB prosecutors informed the bench that the NAB chairman had issued warrant of arrests of the petitioners, but they cannot be arrested due to the stay order.

The names of the petitioners were mentioned by the NAB in a reference filed before the accountability court, but the court didn’t summon them for framing of charges by observing that their roles had not been spelt out in the reference.

The order of the accountability court was upheld by the Peshawar High Court.The said reference was filed by the NAB last year against 10 persons, including the six petitioners.

The prime suspect in the case, Malik Naveed Khan, who was then the provincial police officer, and a budget officer of the police, Jawed Khan, are presently under trial in the accountability court.

Another suspect, Amir Ghazan Khan, who is brother of former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti, was acquitted by the court while his brother-in-law Raza Ali was set free after his plea bargain application was accepted by the NAB.

Abdul Samad Khan, Barrister Mudassir Amir, Syed Arshad Ali, Aamir Jawed and Anwarul Haq, lawyer for the petitioners, said their clients had received call-up notices from the NAB and they feared that their arrest warrants might also have been issued.

They said the act of NAB was based on malafide intentions as it had already lost cases in the accountability court, high court and Supreme Court about the non-summoning of the petitioners by the accountability court for indicting them in the said case.

According to the lawyers, the accountability court had in March 2014 declined to summon the six police officers citing the failure of NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to explain their offence.On November 24, 2014, the accountability court had rejected an application of NAB and stuck to its earlier decision of not summoning the six officials.

Later, the high court had dismissed the NAB petition against the accountability court’s verdict.