PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday stayed starting of fresh inquiries by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, against director general of Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) who claims that the bureau had earlier closed all the inquiries against him after proper verification.

The bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Abdul Shakoor sought comments from the NAB chairman and its KP director general directing them to file it within a fortnight in the writ petition filed by the PDA DG Mohammad Saleem Hassan Wattoo.

The bench directed the NAB that in the meantime it should maintain status quo over the issue. Next date of hearing the petition would be fixed later.

The petitioner has challenged an order of the NAB DG issued on July 6 about authorising fresh inquiries in certain closed matters related to alleged irregularities in certain projects of the authority. He has requested the court to declare the said authorisation of fresh inquiries as illegal, misuse of authority and be set aside.

Seeks reply from NAB chairman on the issue

The respondents in the petition are: The NAB chairman; DG of NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Hayatabad Residents Society through its coordinator Qamar Ali; an executive member of the Hayatabad Residents Society Ihsanullah Khan; ex-nazim of Hayatabad Union Counicl Nawab Khattak; and ex-lessee of an office space in Hayatabad, Mohammad Nawab Khattak.

The petitioner has requested the high court to issue appropriate directions to the NAB chairman to initiate inquiry against the NAB DG and his staff so as behind the curtain dealings of the DG with the respondents Ihsanullah and others could come to surface.

He further requested that appropriate action may be taken against the NAB DG and his staff and also to issue direction to the DG to restrain from harassing and intimidating the petitioner in any matter on the complaint of respondents Ihsanullah and Nawab Khattak or other fabricated complaints. Senior advocate Qazi Mohammad Anwar and Ali Gohar are representing the petitioner.

Ali Gohar appeared before the bench and contended that the petitioner was appointed as DG of PDA in 2015 and after assuming the charge he found that PDA was virtually managed and controlled by a mafia consisting of contractors, land grabbers, etc. He stated that the petitioner tried his best to clean PDA from menace of corruption, which annoyed the members of the said mafia, which started submitting fabricated complaints against him to the NAB from time-to-time.

He stated that from Dec 10, 2015, to Nov 9, 2016, the NAB had received 17 complaints against the PDA put of which 14 were against the petitioner and three against other officers and the same were inquired by the NAB and were closed.

The counsel stated that another complaint was filed against the petitioner which was by NAB in its meeting of the regional board on Feb 10, 2017, and the same was found baseless.

He stated that respondent Nawab Khattak who was aggrieved of cancellation of lease of a commercial shop which was illegally leased out to him, invoked the jurisdiction of high court against the petitioner through a writ petition. He added that it appeared that the NAB DG was bargaining with the other respondents due to which facts were suppressed from the high court and the court was not informed that the inquires had already been closed after verification.

He stated that on Jun 15 the court ordered those petitioners including Nawab Khattak and Hayatabad Residents Society (HRS) that it was better to first approach the NAB regarding their grievances.

He contended that under the cover of the said order of the high court the NAB DG had ordered fresh inquiries into different matters which had already been closed. He added that the said writ petition was filed by the HRS and Nawab Khattak in collusion with the NAB DG, which was evident from the fact that they had concealed facts from the high court.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2017