KARACHI: The Rawal­pindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Friday suspended Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s arrest warrant in an inquiry related to the purchase of plots in a housing society at a “throwaway price”.

Taking up a petition filed by Mr Sanaullah’s lawyer against the warrant, Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan stopped the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) from arresting the minister and raiding his house.

The court has also sought the case record from the ACE by October 17.

The development came a day after the newly appoi­nted Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister on Home Affairs Omar Sarfraz Cheema said that Mr Sana­ullah Khan will be arrested if he enters Punjab. He also directed the Punjab inspector general to assist the ACE in making the arrest.

Last week, a Rawalpindi court had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the minister twice on the req­uest of the ACE.

However, the subsequent attempts to arrest Mr Sanaullah failed to yield results after the ACE teams returned empty-handed from Islamabad due to “lack of cooperation” by the Islamabad police.

The ACE had obtained the warrant since he allegedly failed to comply with the repeated summons.

According to the Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister for Anti-Corruption retired Brigadier Musaddiq Abbasi, Mr Sanaullah had taken two plots as a “bribe” from an “illegal housing society” — the Bismillah Housing Scheme — in Chakwal district.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Mr Sanaullah accused the anti-corruption department of “tampering records” and “misleading the court” in a four-year-old case against him.

“ACE has obtained the warrant by deceiving and misleading the court by deliberately hiding the facts. This is why they are hiding the case records along with the warrant which is a legal requirement,” the minister said, adding that he would approach the court against ACE.

Mr Abbasi said the ACE had initiated an inquiry against Mr Sanaullah (in 2017), who was then the Punjab law minister.

“During the investigation, it has been revealed that in the opening ceremony of Bismillah Housing Society, Colony Kallar Kahar, Rana Sanaullah, who was provincial law minister at that time, participated along with his wife. The housing society’s owner gifted Mr Sanaullah two plots measuring 10 kanals as a bribe,” the adviser had said, adding that the plots in question were transferred to Mr Sanaullah by the society at a much lower than scheduled rate.

Mr Abbasi had said these two plots were still in the possession of Mr Sanaullah and his wife, which itself was “proof” that he had got these as a bribe by using his official position.

He said the case was registered in 2019 but the minister did not appear before ACE. “Mr Sanaullah was re-summoned on Oct 6 but he did not appear before the ACE after which non-bailable arrest warrants were issued against him,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2022