LAHORE, March 26: An accountability court on Saturday directed the interior ministry to place on the Exit Control List (ECL) the names of all the accused persons facing charges of corruption in references and who were on bail. The court, headed by Rana Zahid Mahmood, issued the directive during hearing of a reference against PPP secretary-general Jehangir Badr when the NAB counsel submitted that he had left the country without the court permission. The court directed the ministry to submit a report after compliance of the order and not to remove any such names from the ECL without the court’s prior permission. Mr Badr, who was present in the court, submitted that he went abroad for medical check-up with the court’s permission. The judge told him that he was allowed a 10-day visit on March 15 but he had left the country three days before the grant of permission.

The court observed that his name should have been on the ECL. Mr Badr replied that his name was already on the list and he had to obtain special permission to go abroad.

It may be recalled that Rana Zahid Mahmood had directed the interior ministry two weeks ago to place Federal Minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat on the ECL. The Lahore High Court has since issued a stay order in the case.

AAG APPEAL: A division bench of the Federal Shariat Court on Saturday accepted the competence of an assistant advocate-general to file appeal against the acquittal of seven alleged drug traffickers, implying that the AAG was performing the functions rightfully as a public prosecutor.

Comprising Justice Sheikh Abdul Mannan and Justice Saeedur Rehman Farrukh, the division bench remanded the trial to a local judicial magistrate with the instructions that a decision about the allegations should be given within six months because it was an old case dating back to 1991.

The court said in its short order that the bonafide of the appeal was accepted. The order implied that the court agreed to the argument of assistant advocate-general Raja Abdur Rehman that another AAG was acting as a public prosecutor when he filed the appeal against the acquittal of the seven accused, including former federal secretary Ghulam Yazdani, by a magistrate.

He cited 1994 SCMR 749 to make his submissions that Punjab government law officer Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry (now a judge of the Lahore High Court), was competent under section 492 of the CrPC to file appeal against the acquittal order passed by the magistrate.

Another legal proposition formulated during the hearing of the appeal was that the high court and not the FSC was a competent appellate forum in terms of section 417 of the CrPC. The FSC dismissed this contention and held that it was the proper appellate forum in case of conviction under the Hudood laws.

The case of acquittal and appeal pertained to the recovery of about 113 maunds of marijuana from a Model Town house in 1991. Ghulam Yazdani, Samiullah Khan, Tabassum Shehzad, Muhammad Siddique Rehan, Muhammad Akram and Muhammad Haneef (since dead) were charged under Hudood laws. A magistrate dismissed the plea of the accused on July 8, 1993, but another magistrate acquitted them of the charge on Oct 31, 1994.

After the FSC order, the accused, except those on bail, would immediately be arrested, the AAG said.

The appeal against the acquittal was moved by AAG Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry, since elevated as a LHC judge, in 1995. It challenged the authority of an AAG saying it should be filed by a public prosecutor.