MUZAFFARABAD, June 21: The AJK Ehtesab Bureau has served a show-cause notice to one of its prosecuting attorneys for his alleged failure to properly pleading a case in the High Court involving the son of AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Sardar Siab Khalid, Dawn has learnt.
The Bureau's Deputy Chief Prosecutor Shaikh Masood Iqbal had shocked his superiors when he stated before the court that "at present the Bureau had no case against (Speaker's son) Mr Shahzad Khalid."
Mr Shahzad had filed a "bail before arrest" petition on May 26 in the High Court wherein he had contended that he belonged to a respectable family and the Ehtesab Bureau wanted to arrest him in a bid to defame his father.
All this, he stated in the petition, was being done by a bureau official Asrar Ayub out of malafide intentions because his (official's) brother was their political opponent. The bail was granted by Chief Justice Syed Manzoor Hussain Gillani till June 1 but due to some technical reasons the case came up for hearing on June 8 before Justice Sardar Muhammad Nawaz Khan.
In his brief order, Justice Khan held that "in view of the statement of the deputy chief prosecutor, the petition being premature stands disposed of as infructuous." Late last month, the bureau sources had revealed to this correspondent that they had completed inquiry against Mr Shahzad for "exercising the powers of SDO Electricity Department for more than 20 months without possessing required qualifications and formal appointment order."
Interestingly, the sources disclosed, when the deputy chief prosecutor was telling the learned judge that there was no case against Mr Shahzad, the file of that case was in his hands.
The sources said the deputy chief prosecutor's statement also provided the Speaker an opportunity to vent anger against the bureau. At a press conference, he alleged that the bureau was "disgracing respectable citizens" and that he would approach President Gen Pervez Musharraf and superior judiciary for redress.
In response to his press conference, the Ehtesab Bureau chairman Maj-Gen (retired) Sarfraz Iqbal had issued a press release whereby he refuted reports that there was no case against the Speaker's son.
"There are cases under investigation against Shahzad Khalid and several other people regarding merit and academic qualifications and these cases pass through several stages," the chairman had said, adding, "Actual situation will be clear only after completion of the investigation."
