PHC declares Ehtesab Commission Act lawful

Dismisses 15 petitions by ministers, bureaucratsBy Akhtar Amin

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has declared the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) Act 2014, appointment of its director general and formation of the KP Ehtesab Commission as lawful and intra vires of the Constitution.

The stay order of the high court restraining the Ehtesab Court from proceedings was also vacated, declaring the Act, the Commission and its actions as lawful.

A division bench headed by PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel announced the verdict and dismissed all the15 petitions filed by three former ministers and some government officials challenging the vires of the KPEC Act 2014, formation of the KP Ehtesab Commission and appointment of its director general.

“All the interim bails granted to the arrested accused would be decided on merit,” the PHC chief justice announced in a short order. He said that detailed judgment of the cases would be areleased soon.

A five-member bench headed by PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel had reserved the verdict after hearing detailed arguments of all parties to the case for six days. Other members of the bench are Justice Nisar Hussain, Justice Irshad Qaisar, Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Mohammad Younas Taheem.

The petitions had been filed by sacked PTI provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi, former PPP provincial minister Liaqat Shabab, secretary industries Sajid Khan Jadoon, PTI MPA Gul Sahib Khan’s father Noor Daraz Khattak and others.

The majority of the petitioners were on interim bail except Ziaullah Afridi who is in jail. After decision on the petitions, the high court will now start hearing the writ petitions through which the petitioners had obtained interim bails from the high court. 

Earlier, KP Advocate General Latif Yousafzai contended that the relevant bill was referred to select committee of the provincial assembly and he too attended four of its meetings in which thorough discussion took place on the bill that was then made a law called ‘Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) Act 2014’.

He said under Article 69 read with Article 127 of the Constitution, discussion in the provincial assembly couldn’t be challenged in the court.

Additional Attorney General (AAG) Syed Attique Shah told the court that the impugned Act was an intrusion into the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), also known as NAB law, which was promulgated in 1999 and had already been declared a valid law by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Syed Attique Shah argued that the NAO was promulgated by the President of Pakistan in November 1999 around 15 years before the enactment of the KPEC Act. “The NAB law has already passed the test of its validity in the Asfandyar Wali Khan case in which the Supreme Court had declared that the said ordinance was neither in conflict with the Constitution of Pakistan nor it was against the provincial autonomy,” he maintained.

He pointed out that all the laws introduced from October 1999 till December 2003 were given protection under Article 270 AA, which provided that the said laws would continue to be in force till such time when a law was amended, altered or repealed by the competent forum. “In the case of the NAB law the competent forum was the federal legislature and not the provincial one,” he argued.

DPG Mohammad Jamil Khan also supported the arguments of the AAG and contended that if the provincial government had any objection to the NAB law, it should move the Supreme Court for revisiting the judgment in the Asfandyar Wali Khan case otherwise in the presence of NAB law, anti-corruption was an occupied field.

Moazzam Butt, lawyer for one of the petitioners, produced details of a presentation made to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and others in May 2014 about the KPEC Act and claimed that it was clearly mentioned in it that the law was drafted by an American firm Grant Thornton and the law department was not permitted even to make minor changes in it.

Lawyers for the petitioners, including Sardar Ali Raza, Shumail Ahmad Butt and Ghulam Mohiuddin Malik, also submitted arguments in reply to the plea taken by the advocate general and KPEC prosecutors.