RAWALPINDI, Nov 12: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Wednesday reprimanded the NAB deputy public prosecutor for repeatedly failing to submit reply in a petition.

The bench comprising Justice Fazal-e-Miran Chauhan and Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah was hearing a petition filed by Chaudhry Safdar seeking the court intervention to restrain the respondents, NAB chairman and two deputy directors, from harassing him.

The bench besides directing the officials of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) not to harass the petitioner asked them to submit their para-wise comments in the petition within a week.

Chaudhry Safdar maintained that the respondents had been calling him to their office and threatening him with dire consequences if he did not execute a sale deal in transfer of some land.

According to the petition, some people had lodged a complaint with the NAB saying they had purchased some land on Misrial Road from the father of the petitioner but the land had not been transferred to them. The petitioner maintained that first he did not sign the deal and secondly he was not the sole heir to his deceased father’s property.

The petitioner further said that since the case was civil in nature, therefore did not fall in the jurisdiction of the NAB and alleged the two deputy directors had been unlawfully calling him to their office and harassing and pressurizing him. He has prayed to the court to direct the respondents not to harass him.

Meanwhile, in a petition filed a father against expulsion of his sons from an Army Public School seeking the court’s orders to declare the decision of the school administration null and void the respondents filed their reply.

Administrator army public school (APS) system GHQ and the principal APS Jarar Camp Rawalpindi in their reply expressed their willingness to accommodate the younger brother as they could not admit the elder for want of space. Saeed Yousaf the lawyer of Raja Nazakat Hussain, the father, said he would file a rejoinder to the reply of the respondents and would press for accommodation of both boys in the school with the court of Justice M A Zaffar of the LHC.

Making ministry of defence through its secretary, the administrator of APS system and the principal of the school as respondents, the petitioner maintained that he got admitted his two sons Dilawar Hussain and Mohammad Shameer in class I and II respectively in 2007 in the APS Jarar Camp that was established near the village after acquiring land form the villagers.

The petitioner said his boys showed over 80 per cent results in the examinations and were promoted to the next class. Every thing was going as per routine when the administration of the school started pressing the petitioner and other local residents to sell their inherited lands adjacent to the camp on cheap rates but the owners refused to oblige the administration.

The petitioner alleged that the school administration in a bid to press him for the sale of his inherited land issued a letter on October 8 saying the names of his two sons had been struck off from the school due to shortage of space. He said he wrote a letter to the defence secretary appealing him to stop the ouster of his sons but had received no response.