PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Friday stopped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission from re-arresting a PTI MPA’s father and former chief coordinating officer of Kohat district council, Noor Daraz Khattak, in a corruption case.
While observing the restriction will remain effective until further orders, Justice Mussarat Hilali and Justice Mohammad Younas Taheem asked the suspect to join investigation into the case.
Noor Daraz, who is father of MPA Gul Sahab Khan, has filed a petition challenging a notice issued to him by the KPEC for appearing before it in the case of alleged irregularities in construction of Kohat several shops when he was the tehsil municipal officer there in 2004-05.
The bench also put on notice the commission’s director general and prosecutor general to appear before it and adjourned the hearing until next month.
The petitioner was earlier arrested along with four others on April 17 when he was the chief coordinating officer in Kohat district council.
Directs suspect to join investigation against him
They all were charged by the commission of grabbing Rs250 million government land in Jerma area of Kohat district.
Later, he was booked in two other cases of alleged illegal appointments made to Peshawar Town 1 and Town 3 administrations when he was serving there. However, he secured bail from the high court on July 2.
Early this month, the petitioner again approach the high court when he was given a notice to appear before the KPEC in relation to possession of assets, which were allegedly disproportionate to his known sources of income. In that case, the court had also restrained the commission from arresting him.
The petitioner’s counsel, Sahibzada Asadullah, argued that the commission had been trying to falsely implicate his client in the case.
He said the departmental inquiries had declared the petitioner innocent.
He said the court had already granted the petitioner bail in three of the cases but the commission intended to re-arrest him by issuing him the ‘call-up’ notice.
The PTI has also suspended party membership of MPA Gul Sahab Khan on the charge of violating party discipline during the local council elections.
He had filed a habeas corpus petition with the court when his father, Noor Daraz, was arrested. In the petition, he had also challenged provisions of the KPEC Act 2013.
PETITION DISMISSED: The bench dismissed the petition of a PTI candidate for Bannu tehsil council elections against the Election Commission of Pakistan order to de-seat him on the basis that he didn’t complete the six months mandatory period before contesting elections after resigning from the schoolteacher’s post.
The petitioner, Israr Khan, claimed he was a schoolteacher and had resigned on Sept 13, 2004, and subsequently, his name was removed from the school register on Sept 16, 2014.
He, however, said the education department had accepted his resignation in Apr 2015, few days before the filing of registration papers began.
The petitioner’s lawyer said his client got elected as member of Domail tehsil council from Baizankhel Ward and was also declared elected by the returning officer.
He said his rival candidate, Farooq Khan, had filed an application before the ECP, which on Aug 20 set aside the notification wherein he was declared successful and ordered re-election in the said ward.
The lawyer said under the KP Local Government Act 2013, a government servant was qualified to contest elections if he had left his job six months prior to starting of the election process.
Anwarul Haq, lawyer for rival candidate, said when the resignation of his client was accepted in April, he was not qualified to contest polls as the mandatory period of six months was not completed.
Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2015
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