PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday acquitted former Peshawar Electric Supply Company chief executive Pervez Akhtar Shah after setting aside his conviction by an accountability court for contempt of court.

A bench consisting of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Irshad Qaiser accepted an appeal of Mr. Shah, who was sentenced on Feb 6 to six months imprisonment along with a fine of Rs1 million by Accountability Court No IV judge Mohammad Asim Imam.

Despite acquittal in the case, the petitioner will remain behind bars as he has been facing trial on the charge of possessing illegal assets.

Pervez Akhtar to remain behind bars due to ongoing trial over his alleged illegal assets

He was booked in the corruption case by the National Accountability Bureau last year.

Ijaz Khan Sabi, lawyer for the appellant, said the appellant was aggrieved by the treatment meted out to him by the accountability judge and a prosecutor following which he had submitted an application to the administrative judge on Jan 20, 2016. He said the administrative judge marked the said application to the same judge, Mohammad Asim Imam, for trial.

The lawyer said the judge confronted the appellant with the said application and he admitted of moving the same.

He said thereafter, the judge, without framing any charge or adopting the procedure provided for the alleged contemnor, convicted the appellant straightaway.

Mr. Sabi said the appellant had moved the said application to the administrative judge of accountability courts but he had referred it to the judge against whom the appellant had raised certain objections.

He added that the judge had convicted the appellant in a hasty and uncalled-for manner.

The lawyer said it was the century-old established principle of the administration of justice that no man should be a judge of his own cause, but in the instant case, the judge concerned had decided the same in his favour and thus granting him the maximum punishment provided under the law.

DR SHAKIL CASE ADJOURNED: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas Tribunal once again adjourned hearing into a petition of Dr Shakil Afridi against the upholding of his conviction by an appellate forum for having links with militants.

The development occurred due to the unavailability of the relevant records.

The three-member tribunal fixed May 19 for the next hearing into the case with the directions for the Khyber Agency administration to produce the records of the case by that date.

Despite repeated orders issued by the tribunal since 2014, the administration has not been producing the records of the case causing the proceedings to linger on.

The tribunal consists of chairman Sange Marjan Khan and members Hussainzada Khan and Atif Nazir.

The petitioner’s counsel, Qamar Nadeem Afridi, told Dawn that the case records were not available and therefore, the hearing was adjourned yet again by the Fata Tribunal, the last judicial forum under the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

On Mar 15, 2014, the FCR commissioner, which is the appellate forum under the FCR, had upheld the conviction of Dr Shakil for being linked to a banned militant organisation of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency but reduced his imprisonment sentence given by the assistant political agent’s court from 33 years to 23 years and that of the Rs320,000 fine to Rs220,000.

Dr Afridi has challenged the upholding of his conviction by the FCR commissioner by filing the revision petition.

The tribunal also adjourned the hearing into a petition filed by the administration of Khyber Agency against the reduction of Dr Shakil’s sentence by the commissioner.

Dr Shakil claimed he was denied the right to fair trial and was convicted by the assistant political agent on ‘flimsy grounds.’

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2016