PESHAWAR: A local court has granted an interim pre-arrest bail to additional assistant commissioner Aftab Ahmad until July 2 on the charge of intimidating and torturing a senior lawyer at a filling station.
Besides ordering the finishing of two Rs90,000 surety bonds each for bail, additional district and sessions judge Syed Shaukatullah Shah also asked the ACC tojoin the police investigation and attend next hearings regularly until the disposal of his bail petition.
He issued notices to the state as well as the complainant, advocate Syed Ghufranullah Shah, and sought records of the case.
The AAC, who is at the centre of a controversy between the lawyers and civil servants after advocate Ghufranullah was arrested at a filling station and an FIR was registered against him on his order, contended that the case against him was based on mala fide and he was falsely implicated in it.
The FIR against the AAC was registered at Chamkani police station on June 4 on the order of the additional district and sessions judge, who had accepted a petition of Ghufranullah under Section 22-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The FIR was registered against the AAC and policemen Ahmad Shah and Altaf under Section 506 (Criminal intimidation), Section 324 (attempt to commit intentional murder) and Section 34 (act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
A meeting of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association’s cabinet was held under the chairmanship of its president, Rehmanullah, which constituted a five-member legal committee for pursuing the pre-arrest bail petition of the AAC.
The committee comprises Mian Arshad Jan, Nasrun Minallah, Saeed Khan, Barrister Amirullah Khan Chamkani and Amanullah Khan, who is also joint secretary of the association.
The controversy had led to protests by both sides as the lawyers observed strike for 12 days and the civil servants went on a symbolic strike across the province by wearing black armbands.
Both ended protests on June 14 claiming that their major demands were met by the government.
The AAC was suspended by the provincial government on June 14.
The issue between lawyers and civil servants began after FIR registration against and arrest of the lawyer, who was accused by the AAC of stopping him from performing his duty at a filling station on June 2.
In the FIR, the AAC insisted that he went to a filling station on the GT Road to look into the complaints about ‘hindrance to fuel supply to motorists’ and as he was busy with his official duty, Ghufranullah, who was also present there, began hurling threats at him and his police guards before attacking them and trying to snatch their weapons.
Similarly, another FIR was registered against some lawyers on complaint of the district administration accusing the lawyers of attacking the office of the deputy commissioner during a demonstration on June 4.
While ending their protest, the civil servants had claimed that the government had promised them withdrawal of the case against the AAC and suspension of the practicing licences of the lawyers, who ‘attacked’ the office of Peshawar’s deputy commissioner.
In a joint statement, the Provincial Management Services, Provincial Civil Services, Pakistan Administrative Services along with Secretariat Coordination Council had claimed that the government had agreed on the provision of ‘legal-cum-administrative mechanism’ for civil servants while performing official duties.
Published in Dawn,June 18th, 2022
