PESHAWAR, July 25: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday initiated contempt of court proceedings against two Islamabad-based police officials for violating its order on returning a car to its rightful owner.

The bench comprising Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi and Justice Raj Mohammad Khan directed officials of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) to produce the detained car before the next date of hearing on August 2.

The bench observed that prima facie had occurred and Sub-Inspector Mohammad Shafiq and ASI Khalid Niazi had committed contempt of court. The bench served them show cause notices asking them to clarify why action should not be taken against them.

Authorities had detained a Toyota Corolla in 1999 on suspicion that its chassis number had been tampered with. A writ petition was filed before the high court which decided that in the light of a chemical examination report, the chassis was not tampered and ordered police to hand over the vehicle to its rightful owner.

The court order was later challenged before the Supreme Court which in 2000 also upheld the judgment of the high court.

On June 4, 2007, the ACLC officials stopped the same car at Tarnol and took it away again for chemical examination.

The owner Gohar Zaman Khan filed a contempt of court petition at the high court stating that he had produced the previous order of the court to officials but they declined even then to return back his vehicle.

Justice Qureshi reprimanded the officials and asked them why they were not complying with the instructions of the court. He observed that the police officials had not taken the court’s order seriously.

Advocate Isaac Ali Qazi appeared on behalf of the petitioner and contended that officials were informed time and again about the high court’s orders but they remained adamant on disobeying it.

He added that the petitioner was carrying valid registration documents, but despite that they had detained the car.

Advocate Shakeel Awan appearing on behalf of the officials said the car in question was not the same as the one about which the high court had given its verdict. He informed the court that the chemical examination of the car showed that it was in fact a stolen car lifted from Lahore in 1996 and an FIR was registered about it at the Race Course police station in Lahore.