PESHAWAR: A two-member Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday extended its earlier order of stopping the National Accountability Bureau from arresting one former and five serving senior police officers in a high-profile case of the alleged embezzlement in procurement of weapons for the police department in 2009-10.

Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mohammad Daud Khan fixed May 12 for the next hearing into different petitions of the said officers against issuance of their arrest warrants by the NAB last year with the direction that the petitioners be not arrested until that date.

The six officers, including then commandant of Frontier Constabulary Abdul Majeed Marat, then additional IGP Operation (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Abdul Latif Gandapur (now retired), DIG at Central Police Office (CPO) Sajid Ali Khan, then DIG Headquarters Peshawar Mohammad Suleman, then AIG (Establishment) at CPO Kashif Alam and then DIG (telecommunications) Sadiq Kamal Orakzai, have filed petitions against the issuance of their arrest warrants by the NAB in the said weapons procurement case.

Names of the six petitioners were mentioned by the NAB in a reference filed before the accountability court, but the court had not summoned them for framing of charges observing that their roles had not been spelt out in the reference.

Asks NAB not to arrest them until next hearing

Abdul Samad Khan and Anwarul Haq, lawyers for Majeed Marwat and Sajid Khan respectively, said the superior courts had already declared that the trial court had the powers to summon any accused person mentioned in the reference.

They said in light of a recent judgment of the Supreme Court once the trial court started trial in a reference the NAB chairman had no authority to issue arrest warrants for a suspect and the said power could only be exercised by the trial court keeping in view the available evidence on record.

Samad Khan said the NAB had referred to a case of Professor Abdur Raheem in support of its contention and he (counsel) might be given some time to go through that judgment.

Barrister Mudassir Ameer, Aamir Jawed and Khalid Mehmood appeared for other four officials and contended that their clients had engaged in a dialogue with the NAB authorities for amicably resolving the issue. They added that the petitions may be adjourned so that in the meantime those negotiations could reach its conclusion.

The trial court had first in Nov 2014 dismissed an application of the NAB for summoning the said six officers to face trial and then on June 18, 2015, again turned down the NAB’s plea making the same request.

CASE ADJOURNED: The bench also adjourned hearing of a writ petition filed by NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, challenging the order of the accountability court of Jun 18 through which the plea of NAB was dismissed for the second time to summon the said six officers in the case where presently a former provincial police officer, Malik Naveed Khan, and a budget officer of police, Jawed Khan, have been facing trial. Both the accused are facing trial on charges of awarding lucrative contracts of procurement of weapons and other items to a contractor after receiving kickbacks.

The DPG Jamil Khan contended that they had approached the trial court as well as the high court several time for summoning the said six petitioners and last time they were ordered to approach the trial court in this regard, but the trial court had dismissed their application in Jun against which the present petition was filed.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2016