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LAHORE, July 12: Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry on Monday directed the Anti-Narcotics Force to arrest two of the three women who were freed by former Lahore High Court judge Fakhrunnisa when their appeals were pending.
A person from Gujranwala, Haji Mohammad Sharif, filed a petition last month, alleging that the retired woman judge set at liberty three women, Naseem Bibi, Munazza and Irshad Bibi, despite the fact that they were convicted of drug trafficking.
According to the petitioner, justice Fakharunnisa, who retired on June 28, released Irshad Bibi during her visit to the Women Jail in Multan. The other two wrote to the retired judge for a similar action and she released them as well.
The petitioner alleged that the three women were convicted of narcotics smuggling and their appeals were pending with the appellant courts. He alleged that the former judge had information about their conviction.
The petition came up for hearing before the chief justice earlier this month and he directed the ANF to take into custody the three women. The ANF reported on Monday that it had arrested Irshad Bibi. The petition will come up for hearing now on July 27 with the ANF under the instructions to arrest the two other women.
KHOKHAR'S PLEA: A division bench of the Lahore High Court is to again take up on Tuesday the appeal of former National Assembly deputy speaker Haji Nawaz Khokhar against his conviction by an accountability court.
Appellant's counsel Manzoor Ahmad Malik and the state almost concluded their arguments on Monday during the hearing of the appeal before the division bench, comprising Justice Syed Tassaduq Husain Jilani and Justice Saeed Akhtar.
The accountability court sentenced Mr Khokhar to three-year rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs1,896,000 in a reference, which accused him of not depositing in time the commutation fee in the purchase of land near Islamabad. The fine equalled the commutation fee, which he deposited with the public treasury after the reference had been filed.
The appeal challenged the NAB court's sentence and described it as illegal. The counsel argued that the reference against Mr Khokhar was filed under the Ehtesab Ordinance on 1996.
He was charge-sheeted in accordance with the provisions of the Ehtesab Ordinance of 1997 and convicted under the NAB Ordinance of 1999. The counsel said it was illegal because the Supreme Court had decided in a case (PLD 200 SC 26) in favour of similarity of the law for conviction.
The reference said Mr Khokhar, now a PPP leader, failed to remit the commutation fee charged to him on the purchase and transfer of 150 acres around Islamabad in the 1980s.
The court also disqualified the former NA deputy speaker from contesting and holding a representative public office for 10 years. Five other accused, including three tehsildars and a qanoongo, were acquitted of abetting him.
The counsel submitted that the conviction on account of late payment was unlawful because it caused no loss to the exchequer. He also raised the question of the acquittal of five other accused (all revenue officials), who had committed an offence of the same extent as Mr Khokhar's.
He also contended that the union council officials, who were supposed to receive the commutation fee, were not held as accused for failing to take action against the appellant.
