PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday disposed of a contempt of court petition against federal interior secretary after the federal government removed the name of former MNA Asma Alamgir from Exit Control List (ECL) in accordance with the order of court.

A bench of Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim was informed by an additional attorney general, Manzoor Khalil, that the ministry of interior had removed the name of the petitioner, Asma Alamgir, from the ECL.

The AAG produced an order of the ministry of interior released by a section officer wherein it was mentioned that it was decided to delete the name of Ms Alamgir from the ECL in compliance of Peshawar High Court order issued on April 24.

Former MNA Asma Alamgir’s name removed from ECL

The petitioner, who was adviser to then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, had requested the court to initiate criminal proceedings against the federal interior secretary and punish him in accordance with the law for disobeying the order passed by the high court on April 24, 2019 in a writ petition.

The petitioner was represented by Barrister Masroor Shah. On May 28, the high court had given two days time to the government to comply with the order.

The petitioner had claimed that on March 2, 2018, ministry of interior through a notification placed her name on ECL for a period of one year.

The petitioner stated that on March 2, 2019, the interior ministry’s notification automatically lapsed. But her name was still kept “active” on the ECL.

She had challenged the placement of her name on ECL before the high court, which on April 24 accepted the petition and directed to remove her name from the list.

SHO: A high court bench set aside conviction of a resident of Swabi in a concocted case of narcotics carrying and ordered the inspector general of police to take departmental action against the concerned station house officer (SHO).

The bench of Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Mohammad Ayub Khan accepted an appeal, filed by Abid Khan, a resident of Gandaf area, who was sentenced to six years imprisonment by a subordinate court in Swabi, and acquitted him.

Police had alleged that the appellant was arrested on January 22, 2018, and from his possession five kilograms of charas and one kilogram of heroin were recovered.

Advocate Shabir Hussain Gigyani appeared for the appellant and contended that his client was stopped by a police party as he was having a licenced pistol. He said that the appellant had an altercation with the SHO, Mohammad Shafique, after which he was severely tortured and implicated in a concocted case.

He argued when the appellant was produced before a magistrate by the police, the court ordered a medical board to examine him as he was in injured condition. He added that the report of medical board clearly proved that he was severely tortured.

The court ordered the IGP to take action against the SHO and inform the registrar of the high court about the action taken against him.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019