PESHAWAR: Rejecting a review petition of the National Accountability Bureau, the Peshawar High Court on Thursday upheld its earlier order about the non-summoning of one retired and five serving police officers by an accountability court for indictment in a high-profile case of embezzlement of funds in weapons procurement for their department.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mohammad Daud Khan dismissed the petition after hearing the arguments of NAB deputy prosecutor general Mohammad Jamil Khan.

The petitioner had requested the court to review its March 26 order to dismiss a NAB petition against the non-summoning of the said six police officers by the accountability court in the case on the ground that while other suspects were arrested, the said officer had not been arrested by the NAB and only their names were mentioned in the reference filed before the accountability court.

The bench observed that the petitioner had not produced anything concrete on the basis of which the court should review its earlier order.

NAB had filed review petition against the court order in arms case

The police officials, whose names were mentioned by NAB in the reference filed in the accountability court but were not summoned to face trial, include former Frontier Constabulary commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa additional IGP (operations) Abdul Latif Gandapur, DIG at Central Police Office Sajid Ali Khan, former DIG Headquarters Peshawar Mohammad Suleman, former AIG (Establishment) at CPO Kashif Alam and former DIG (telecommunications) Sadiq Kamal Orakzai.

In March 2014, the accountability court had declined to summon the six police officers citing the NAB failure to explain their offence as a major reason.

The court had observed that the position of the suspects had yet to be spelled out and construed by the NAB under the law and in line with the relevant provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Subsequently, the accountability court had dismissed on Nov 24 an application of the NAB and had stuck to its earlier decision of not summoning the six officials.

The court had observed that so far the NAB hadn’t produced convincing reasons for the non-arrest of the said six suspects and that whenever any convincing reason was given, the court would summon them accordingly to face the charge at any stage.

Upset by those orders of the accountability court the NAB filed the earlier writ petition saying the trial court had erred by not summoning the six officers to stand trial as they were members of the purchase committee, which

had awarded lucrative contracts to a private contractor Arhsid Majeed who later on turned approver.

Deputy prosecutor general Mohammad Jamil Khan said once the NAB had cited the said six suspects as accused in the case, the court had no powers to decline their summoning to stand trial.

He said the trial court could only either acquit or convict a suspect.

The NAB claimed the evidence collected by it had confirmed the loss of Rs2.03 billion to the kitty in the case.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2015

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