ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: The Supreme Court was informed on Wednesday that the station house officer (SHO) of Golra police station, involved in fake transfer of a house, had been arrested by capital police.

Acting Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Islamabad Sultan Azam Taimoori, who appeared before a three-member Supreme Court bench, told the court that SHO Golra Khalid Virk, who had been suspended by the department, was nabbed by the police on August 30 as per directions of the apex court. The court later adjourned the case for September 13.

During the last hearing, the bench, comprising Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice M. Javed Buttar, had expressed dismay over the inability of the police to arrest SHO Golra and had issued directions to arrest the officer as early as possible.

On Wednesday, the court also asked Islamabad police to arrest the three absconders within a week. The three men are Shahid Qasim, the main accused in the case, Basharat and Imtiaz Mughal.

The acting SSP told the court that Mussarat Ali Khan, SHO of Industrial Area police station, had been deputed to investigate and arrest the culprits. The SHO assured the bench that he would arrest the culprits within a week.

The court also warned that if the absconders were not arrested within the given timeframe, it would issue directions to transfer the case to another government agency.

Assistant Advocate General Punjab Afshan Ghazanfar also requested the court to issue notices against three senior officers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) - Director Saadullah Zimri and two deputy directors Mehboob Sultan and Malik Nadeem Akbar - in addition to the CDA chairman.

At this Dr Babar Awan advocate defended CDA officials by saying that the former chairman should be called if necessary, besides CDA officers were only involved in processing the transfer case on the documents provided to them under one-window operation.

The court during the hearing also wondered as to how properties of people living abroad were transferred in 18 days when the transfer of property was a very tedious job and usually took months.

Afshan Ghazanfar said the real owner of the house Dr Mohammad Saeed was regularly sending foreign remittances for the last 20 years adding that nobody would be saved from such unscrupulous elements if one day people were told that their properties had been transferred without their knowledge.

She emphasized that the rights of the people should be protected at all cost. The court was hearing a case of illegal transfer of a house in sector F-10/3 on a suo motu notice. The house was owned by Dr Mohammad Saeed, now living in Munich, Germany, while Mohammad Aashiq, one of the relatives of Dr Saeed, was residing in the house.

The land mafia got transferred the house in the name of Abu Bakar Hamdani on August 20, 2003 through fake documents. As a result of the transfer, the property was forcibly vacated from Mohammad Aashiq. SHO Golra was also instrumental in getting the possession of the house.