PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday stopped the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) in the province from taking any action against former chief minister Mahmood Khan in connection with an inquiry launched against him over a decade-old issue from the time when he was a provincial minister.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah issued notices to the ACE director and its Peshawar circle inspector and sought their response to a petition filed by Mahmood Khan for quashing the ongoing inquiry against him.

The petitioner also requested the court to declare illegal all proceedings conducted in the inquiry.

He sought interim relief in the form of orders for the ACE to produce all records of that inquiry against him and not to take any negative action against him until the final disposal of the petition.

Petitioner claims probe launched into old matter to victimise him

The ACE began the inquiry last month over a “source report” on a matter when Mahmood Khan was the sports minister in the cabinet of the then chief minister, Pervez Khattak.

It alleged that as a provincial minister, Mahmood had transferred government funds to his personal accounts for onward distribution among deserving players.

Barrister Sultan Mohammad Khan appeared for the petitioner and said that Mahmood Khan had been elected multiple times to important public offices, including nazim, MPA, provincial minister and the chief minister.

He said that the people of the province in general and that of Swat area in particular had time and again reposed their trust in Mr Mahmood because of his selfless services provided to the people.

Mr Khan said that the last general elections were held on Feb 8, 2024, which led to the formation of a new government both at the federal and provincial levels.

He added that the newly-formed provincial government was that of the petitioner’s political rivals.

The lawyer claimed that the provincial government had been continuously trying to harass and intimidate the petitioner with various tactics, including taking away his security and other staff as permitted under the law to a former chief minister.

He argued that the development schemes approved during the tenure of the petitioner as the chief minister had also been dropped by the present government in the Annual Development Programme.

Mr Khan said that his client was shocked to receive a notice of Sept 3, 2024, which declared that an inquiry was going on regarding the petitioner’s tenure as the provincial minister and as such was related to events that were almost about a decade old.

He said that the same notice declared that the inquiry began after the receipt of an anonymous so-called ‘source report’ that pointed out clear political intimidation and victimisation.

The lawyer contended that the impugned actions were a violation of several constitutional provisions, including articles 4, 9, 10, 10A, 13, 14 and 15.

He claimed that the respondents, including the ACE director and its circle inspector, were pursuing the impugned inquiry against the petitioner despite there being no case made against him just to provide fake results of their performance to the high-ups.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024