PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday directed the regional director general of the National Accountability Bureau to fill the posts of prosecutors without delay observing that the vacancies are delaying proceedings in scores of cases.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar observed that they had seen that the NAB prosecutors didn’t turn up in scores of cases due to heavy workload.

NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa director general Fayyaz Ahmad Qureshi told the bench that the bureau had advertised different posts of prosecutors, while interviews of candidates would be held on Sept 19.

PHC observes vacancies delaying proceedings in scores of cases

He said the NAB was aware of the issue and was striving for the early filling of vacancies.

The bench observed that the NAB was active in the media only.

It added that the bureau issued notices to suspects and issued warrants for their arrest but when their cases reached the high court, no prosecutors appeared before it. Earlier, when the bench began hearing into a petition filed by petitioner Mohammad Tahir against the NAB, no one appeared on the bureau’s behalf.

However, senior prosecutor Azeem Dad turned up afterward but the bench said the NAB regional director general should appear before it in the case.

The bench asked Azeem Dad that he was the only prosecutor, whereas scores of cases related to NAB were fixed in the court on a daily basis and it was impossible for him to appear in all these cases.

When the DG turned up, Justice Qaiser Rasheed said the disposal of NAB cases had been delayed due to the shortage of prosecutors.

The bench adjourned the hearing asking the DG to make those appointments at the earliest. A bench headed by Justice Qaiser Rasheed had taken notice of the issue in Jan and expressed annoyance at the shortage of prosecutors.

It had summoned the then NAB DG, Farmanullah Khan, and ordered him to appoint competent prosecutors without delay.

The then DG had claimed that he had already sent a letter to the NAB chairman for the purpose and that process for appointment of prosecutors had already been begun.

He had promised that in near future, competent prosecutors would be appointed for representing the bureau before the high court. However, the promise wasn’t kept.

CONVICTION SET ASIDE: A bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Mussarat Hilali set aside the life sentence awarded to a man and his son by a lower court and acquitted them in a case regarding the killing of his sister over property dispute.

The bench observed that the prosecution did not prove its case against the two appellants, Tamreez and his son Alamgir, residents of Katlang Mardan.

The prosecution had alleged that the appellants had killed Tamreez’s sister Sabrina Bibi on Mar 12, 2014, over a dispute of ancestral property, while an FIR was registered at Katlang police station under Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code. The appellants were sentenced on Apr 13, 2018, to life imprisonment with fine of Rs500,000.

The appellants’ counsel, Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, contended that there were contradictions in statements of witnesses.

He said the evidence on record was in conflict with the medical evidence in the case.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2019