PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday suspended an order of the Chitral deputy commissioner to arrest a local All Pakistan Muslim League leader under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance and stopped the district administration from taking him into custody.

Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mohammad Daud Khan directed the Chitral deputy commissioner to file written reply to a petition filed by

APML local leader Mohammad Younas, who has challenged the DC’s order issued recently under Section 3 of the MPO.

The petitioner said after the devastating earthquake and floods in Chitral district local people had staged several protest demonstration in the area against slow response in the rehabilitation and reconstruction work.

Asks DC to explain position on order for Mohammad Younas’ arrest under MPO

He said despite promises made by the federal and provincial governments, the affected population continued to suffer due to which there was widespread unrest among the people.

The petitioner claimed that as he was supporting the local population that had annoyed the deputy commission and he had few days ago issued an order under MPO for detaining him for a period of a month.

He said the deputy commission in a stereotyped order had stated that the petitioner had become threat to public order.

Syed Ghufranullah Shah, lawyer for the petitioner, said the DC’s order was illegal and unconstitutional and based on flimsy grounds.

He added that when the petitioner came to know about the issuance of the impugned order he managed to escape from the district and finally filed the instant writ petition against the said order.

The lawyer said the petitioner belonged to Kosht Village in Chitral which was also devastated by floods and earthquake.

STAY EXTENDED: The bench extended interim reliefs earlier granted to six people, including four officials of provincial health department and two officials of a leading pharmaceutical firm, against their expected arrest by the National Accountability Bureau in a case of acquiring substandard hepatitis-C vaccines and other related irregularities.

The bench took up for different petitions filed by the officials seeking requesting the court to declare the NAB proceeding into the matter as illegal and also to set aside the issuance of call-up notices to them by the NAB last year.

Due to the strike by the lawyers’ community on Thursday, the petitioners counsel didn’t turn up. Senior NAB prosecutor Umar Farooq contended that the said call-up notices were issued to the petitioner as the bureau wanted to question them about the matter.

He added that the said case was referred to NAB from the anti-corruption establishment on the order of the high court.

The petitioners include Superintendent of Maulvi Jee Hospital Dr Mohammad Ali Chohan, the then director general health services, Dr Shareef, the project director Dr Ghulam Subhani, another official Dr Jawed Pervez, owner of Pharmedics Laboratories (Private) Limited Sheikh Iftikhar and another of its high-up Mohammad Khalid Malik.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2016