LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from arresting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Abdul Aleem Khan without warrants, also asking him to cooperate with the bureau in investigation.

Representing Mr Khan, Advocate Azhar Siddique told a division bench that a coordinator of the National Assembly Speaker, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, had been filing frivolous applications with the NAB against the petitioner.

He pointed out that the NAB had opened inquiry against the petitioner’s housing scheme “River Edge” thrice but each time it closed the probe for finding no evidence against Mr Khan.

He said the law did not allow the bureau to open the an inquiry earlier closed thrice. The counsel asked the court to stop the NAB from extending harassment to the petitioner and making his arrest.

A NAB prosecutor told the bench that Mr Khan was only asked to furnish some necessary documents required by an investigating team. He said no law had been violated in seeking the required documents from the petitioner.

The bench headed by Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan disposed of the petition with a direction to the NAB to not arrest the PTI’s leader without warrants duly issued by a competent court. The bench also asked the petitioner to cooperate with the investigators and observed that he could approach the court again against any illegal action.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2018