May 01, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 24, 1429

PESHAWAR, April 30: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday restrained the assistant political agent of Kohat Frontier Region (FR) from shifting a prisoner from Peshawar central prison till further orders.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani and Justice Muhammad Alam Khan put on notice the APA, the superintended of the prison and provincial government in a writ petition filed by the prisoner, Ali Akber.

Advocate Sohail Akhter appeared for the petitioner and contended that the petitioner had been in the prison in connection with another case. He stated that the APA of FR Kohat had started proceedings for the shifting of the prisoner to Kohat and in this connection correspondence was started with the superintendent of the prison.

Mr Akhter stated that the APA had put forward flimsy ground for the shifting of the prisoner. He added that the APA claimed that a rival of the prisoner had submitted an application to them 11 years ago for the recovery of an amount of Rs573,000 which he claimed was outstanding against the petitioner.

The counsel contended that the rival applicant had already expired and the APA had no justification to act against the petitioner after 11 long years. He added that the petitioner belonged to Madyan, Swat District, which was a settled district.

He argued that the shifting of the prisoner would be illegal and unconstitutional. He contended that under Section 86-A of the Criminal Procedure Code the prisoner could not be shifted to tribal area without permission of the court.

PETITION ADMITTED: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday admitted to full hearing a writ petition filed by a prominent industrialist of Mardan District, Wasimur Rehman challenging placing his name on the Exit Control List (ECL).

A two-member bench including Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani and Justice Muhammad Alam Khan directed the deputy attorney general, Salahuddin Khan, to explain during next hearing the nature of cases pending against the petitioner.

The federal interior division in its comments filed before the court claimed that the name of the petitioner was placed on ECL on the request of the National Accountability Bureau.

Salahuddin Khan stated that the NAB had claimed that there was a case of Rs14 million pending against the petitioner. He added that following request made by the NAB the name was placed on the ECL.

Advocate Shah Faisal appeared for the petitioner and contended that the act of the federal government was illegal and unconstitutional. He added that the petitioner was a known industrialist and he had to travel abroad for business purpose.

The counsel argued that the NAB had no authority to order placing the name of an individual on the ECL. He added that there was no case pending against the petitioner, therefore, his name should be excluded from the said list.