PHC restrains KPEC from filing 2 more references against ex-minister

 PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday restrained the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) from filing two more references against former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf minister Ziaullah Afridi about award of illegal contracts of mines and illegal appointments till next order of the court.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser issued the restraining order in a writ petition.  The bench also issued notice to the KPEC and sought reply before the next hearing into the case. 

The former PTI provincial minister for mines and minerals, who was arrested by the KPEC and put on trial by the Ehtesab Court, had filed a writ petition in the high court through his lawyer, Shumail Ahmad Butt.  During the hearing, the lawyer submitted that the KPEC had arrested the petitioner on charges of allowing illegal mining in the phosphate and chromite mines. He said now his trial had been started on these charges after the commission submitted a reference at the Ehtesab Court.

During the arrest, he said, the commission then charged him with two other cases. These were about the award of illegal contracts of mines and illegal appointments.  The lawyer said the commission was going to file two more references against him, which was illegal and against the high court decision. He submitted that under the high court decision, only one reference about the charges would run against the accused in trial court after investigation. The court, he said, had declared in the decision that when an accused was arrested, all the charges against the accused would be submitted in one reference after investigation and not in separate references.