PESHAWAR: An official of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has served a joint legal notice on deputy commissioner of Peshawar and two other administrative officers for impounding his official vehicle.

In the notice, finance and accounts director of the assembly Arsala Khan asked DC Imran Hamid Sheikh, assistant commissioner Qaiser Kundi and additional deputy commissioner Shahid Ali to immediately return the vehicle to him besides paying Rs30 million damages within 14 days for distressing him. He warned that he would begin legal proceedings against the respondents if they didn’t do so.

Though the official didn’t mention why the official vehicle was impounded, several incidents of the administration taking away vehicles from officials and giving them to the returning officers for election duty have been reported in the last couple of days

The notice was served through lawyer Salim Shah Hoti, who said the FC and police personnel led by Qaisar Kundi and Shahid Ali stopped his client near the residence of the Peshawar corps commander on Khyber Road on June 20 and took away the car. He said the car was later parked in the deputy commissioner’s offices.

The lawyer said the respondents even refused to give his client the necessary files, laptop, medicines and other valuables present in the car.

He said when contacted, the DC flatly refused to listen to his client and defended the ‘illegal’ act of his staff members.

The lawyer claimed that the respondents had no legal and moral authority to snatch his client’s official vehicle, subject him to mental and physical torture, and illegally confine him. He said the Elections Act, 2017, and the Constitution bound them to follow the law but they violated them by acting in a whimsical manner.

The lawyer added that the harassment and mistreatment of his client by respondents had damaged his public reputation and image and caused him mental pain.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2018