Legal experts term changes appropriate

Amendments to Ehtesab Commission Act

PESHAWAR: Some of the legal experts on Sunday termed the amendments to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) Act appropriate for enhancing the powers of the Ehtesab Commission and placing checks on its director general, particularly his authority regarding the arrest of suspects and filing corruption references in accountability courts.

“There should be a check on the DG while issuing orders of arrests of the suspects and filing a reference,” said senior lawyer Sardar Ali Raza, who has been pleading the cases of the suspects arrested by the Ehtesab Commission. Talking to The News, he argued that the amendments had enhanced the powers of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC).

The lawyer said that as per the amendments now a suspect would be arrested during the stage of investigation only and not when an inquiry is being conducted into a case.Sardar Ali Raza pointed out that majority of suspects were released on interim bail by the high court as they had been arrested during the stage of inquiry. He said earlier the KPEC had failed to produce proof against the accused in the court of law.

He said that arrests of suspects without proof had damaged the reputation and self-respect of the detained officers. He said the high court had restrained the KPEC from making arrests without having solid proof against the accused.

Another senior lawyer, Shumail Ahmad Butt, told The News that majority of the bureaucrats couldn’t work efficiently as they were afraid that they could be arrested by the Ehtesab Commission in haste.

About the claim of former DG of the KPEC that the amendments would undermine the independence and transparency of the accountability process, he said that he was right to some extent, but overall the amendments were appropriate to prevent the misuse of powers. 

He said that making arrests was not the solution as there should be proper evidence for apprehending suspects as in most cases they got interim bail due to lack of proof. Shumail Ahmad Butt said there should be a collective wisdom and decision behind the arrests and submission of reference against the suspects.

It may be mentioned that Lt Gen (Retd) Mohammad Hamid Khan, who was director general of the KPEC, developed differences with the provincial government for making amendments to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission Act.

The ordinance, which was promulgated on Tuesday, makes the approval of the five commissioners mandatory for arresting a suspect and reduces the maximum period of physical custody of a suspect from 45 to 15 days.

The ordinance says that no legislator will be arrested by the KPEC without prior intimation to the Senate chairman or the speaker of the national or provincial assembly as the case may be. Similarly, the chief secretary will have to be informed before the arrest of a civil servant.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor has already accepted the resignation of the DG KPEC.Prior to his resignation, he had sent a letter to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak requesting him to drop the idea of making amendments as it would undermine the principles of an independent and transparent accountability process.

In another letter sent to the chief minister, he raised several legal points which, according to him, would affect the performance of the KPEC.Following the amendments, the KPEC is bound to complete an inquiry in 90 days and an investigation in 30 days. An inquiry may be converted into an investigation with the approval of the commission. A suspect will be arrested only during the investigation stage and not when the inquiry is under process.

Another important amendment stated that the persons appointed in the directorate general before the promulgation of the ordinance would be examined by a scrutiny committee to be constituted by the government.

“No inquiry will be launched on an ‘anonymous’ complaint and a fine imposed over a frivolous complaint will not be less than Rs500,000 and more than Rs2 million,” the amendment stated.

On completion of an inquiry or investigation, a prosecution conference will be held in seven days. It said that the conference will be presided over by Chief Ehtesab Commissioner and attended by two commissioners, DG and prosecutor general.

It said the conference would determine the charges to be framed and references to be filed in the court and the decision would be made through majority of votes.On the other hand, the provincial government said the changes in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission Act were made to strengthen the commission.

It said the amendments would add to the authority of the Ehtesab Commission as an institution.The government has reportedly stated that many cases filed in haste had not yielded positive results.The amendments empower the commission to acquire services of experts in different fields to ensure just and efficient decisions.