July 06, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 9, 1427

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LAHORE, July 5: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday acquitted former chief minister Manzoor Wattoo of charges contained in three references in the case of misappropriation of Baitul Maal funds.

The bench took the decision on a writ petition through which Wattoo had stated that he was liable to be acquitted after he had cleared all liabilities of the Baitul Maal. The petition also challenged the decision of a local accountability court under which the same plea was dismissed in March this year.

Wattoo pleaded in his petition that by paying off the amount allegedly misappropriated by him, he had met the legal requirement of the Ehtesab law of 1997 under which the reference was made out. He stated when the reference against him was made out under the old law, he could not be punished in accordance with the new provisions of the law.

The LHC in an earlier decision did not agree to an identical plea by co-accused Malik Haider Usman and SM Bashir in the reference, and disqualified them from participating in political activity for 10 years.

Wattoo stated in the petition that the old law provided that a politician did not earn disqualification after he had paid the amount allegedly misappropriated from the public fund as it had no provision of plea bargain. The old law, according to him, provided for acquittal on payment of the misappropriated amount.

The NAB stated the accused could not be given the benefit of the previous law as was being tried under the existing law. Wattoo did not opt for plea bargain and pleaded for trial under the new law which had no provisions for acquittal on the refund of the embezzled amount.

DPOs: The Supreme Court on Wednesday remarked that district police officers were behaving like sovereign rulers and their subordinates had made a habit of flouting court orders.

The remarks came when a bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Syed Tassadaq Husain Jilani and Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari, took serious notice of the Sialkot police’s failure to recover Bashir Ahmad who was kidnapped for money.

His wife, Maimoona Bashir, wrote a letter to Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry who converted the letter into a writ petition and directed the Sialkot police to recover the kidnapped person. But the police failed to recover the person and the apex court directed the DPO to appear and report the matter.

When the DPO again reported the police failure in recovering the kidnapped man, the apex court observed that he (the DPO) did not appear to be an officer fit for the job and he should be sacked from the department. At one stage of the proceedings, the court even asked the DPO to write to the inspector-general police that he was not capable of serving the department.

The court, however, allowed the DPO one more day and asked him to submit on Thursday if the police had recovered the abducted person.

Bashir, a wealthy person who had recently returned from an oil-rich country of the Middle East, was kidnapped reportedly for money. His father, Khwaja Muhammad, alleged during the proceedings that Maimoona was responsible for his son’s kidnap in which other close relatives were also involved.