PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has expressed concern over the large number of pending inquiries with the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and asked its director and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary to make the concerned officers duty bound for expeditious disposal of pending inquiries and investigations within the permissible period.

A two-member bench of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Shakeel Ahmad directed the ACE’s director to submit compliance report of disposal of pending inquiries and investigations to the high court through the additional registrar (judicial) within six months.

“We have noted with great concern that despite clear Law and Rules on the subject the Anti-Corruption Establishment has kept pending a large number of inquiries on lame excuse of unavailability of the audit and technical experts or non-cooperation of the departments notwithstanding the fact that the Rules of 1999 equipped the anti-corruption officials to requisition record from any department of the provincial government,” the bench ruled.

The court observed that the ACE director as well as the KP chief secretary had also not adhered to rule 22 of the KP Anti-Corruption Establishment Rules of 1999, whereby they had respectively been empowered to look into the pending inquiries and investigation.

Directs ACE’s director to submit compliance report within six months

“It is expected that the director Anti-Corruption Establishment and the worthy chief secretary shall adhere to the rules of 1999 in letter and spirit and shall make the Scrutiny Committees and Inquiry Officers duty bound for expeditious disposal/conclusion of pending inquiries and investigation in the anti-corruption cases, most particularly, within the statutory period provided in the Rules of 1999,” the bench ruled.

The bench directed the additional registrar (judicial) of the high court to send copy of its judgment to the chief secretary and ACE’s director for onward compliance.

The orders were issued in a detailed judgment while disposing of a petition filed by a citizen, Arshad Sohail, who had challenged delay in completion of an inquiry by the ACE since 2018 regarding a power of attorney related to sale of a private property.

The petitioner had claimed that on basis of an alleged fake power of attorney a person had transferred their property through different mutations.

He said investigation was conducted over his plea, but the concerned assistant director was not forwarding the findings of the inquiry officer to the ACE circle in-charge.

During arguments of the case, it surfaced that a large number of inquiries had been pending with the ACE after which the court ordered its director to submit a report in this regard.

On March 9, 2022, the director submitted a report, stating that a total of 1,992 inquiries were pending with the ACE since Aug 2014.

The director had stated that most of the inquiries could not be completed due to non-cooperation of the government departments like Peshawar Development Authority, sports and tourism, C&W departments, universities, etc.

Subsequently, on the orders of the bench, KP inspector general of police submitted a report, stating that 1,962 inquiries had been pending with the ACE till Dec 20, 2021.

In compliance of an earlier order of the court, the director submitted a report wherein it was stated that in consequence of this court order the ACE had constituted four regional scrutiny committees for the purpose of scrutinising the inquiries especially the old ones in order to reduce the pendency.

Similarly, five regional/district committees consisting of senior auditors and technical officers had also been notified for the disposal of cases requiring audit and technical inspections with direction to complete the process within a period of 10 days and submit inspection reports before March 25.

The director provided a list of disposed of inquiries from March 9, 2022, to March 30, 2022, according to which almost 296 inquiries had been disposed of in different districts of the province.

The bench observed that after holding consecutive meetings by the scrutiny committees, the figures of pending inquiries had been reduced within 21 days, however the number of pending inquiries was still at an alarming level which needed to be completed expeditiously.

“The delay in conclusion of inquiries shows the lethargic attitude and conduct of the anti-corruption officials, most particularly the inquiry officers,” the bench ruled.

The bench observed that the rules provided that if an inquiry or investigation could not be completed within one month and two months, respectively, the time may be extended by the director or the chief secretary, if reasonable grounds existed.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2022