PESHAWAR, March 3: The Peshawar High Court here on Friday issued a notice to an additional district and sessions judge asking him to clarify his position in a case of allowing pre-arrest bail to two accused charged with injuring a person.

Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan directed the high court’s registrar to start departmental proceedings against Additional Sessions Judge Asghar Shah, in case his reply was not satisfactory.

The court also directed the Peshawar district and sessions judge to withdraw all judicial work from the additional district judge. It directed the additional sessions judge to file the reply within a week.

The chief justice admitted to full hearing two petitions filed by the complainant, Sajjad Khan, for the cancellation of the pre-arrest bail granted to the two accused, Sheraz and Imran.

The court also took exception to certain discrepancies in the FIR registered by the officials of the Banamari police station.

The chief justice directed the prosecution DSP to trace out as to which of their officers were responsible for the discrepancies in the FIR and why they had made those errors. The court also ordered the provincial police officer to take action against the responsible police officers.

Advocate Astaghfirullah Khan appeared for the petitioner and contended that the order of the additional sessions judge was based on malafide as without the appearance of the complainant’s counsel, the pre-arrest bail had been granted to the two prime-accused.

He stated that the two accused injured a man on March 2, 2005, and remained absconding for few months. Sheraz had been allowed a pre-arrest bail on Sept 19, 2005, while another accused, Imran, an interim pre-arrest bail on Dec 10, 2005. Imran’s bail was confirmed on Dec 13. The court took exception to the absence of any law officer in the court and forthwith called for the Advocate-General Younas Tanoli.

The chief justice reprimanded the advocate-general observing that the law officers were inefficient and due to the same reason, they were shy of appearing before the bench.