PESHAWAR, Nov 7: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday declared the raid conducted on the offices of a non-governmental organization by the governor’s inspection team illegal and against the law, and directed it to return all the goods taken away from the premises.

Accepting a writ petition, the bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Ijazul Hassan ruled that the inspection team had no authority to raid a private premises and take away its equipment.

The bench directed an official of the team, Inamullah Qureshi, to forthwith return all the goods to Rise, the NGO. The court inquired from him under what authority they had conducted the raid. The official claimed that they cannot return back the goods as they were now in the Governor’s House.

The bench directed him that irrespective of the fact whether the goods were in the Governor’s House or in the President’s House they should be returned back. The bench observed that the official who had raided the premises and taken away the equipment was responsible for the return of these items.

The official had raided the NGO’s office on May 19, 2001, and taken away all the items from there, including a vehicle, computers, printers, furniture, etc.

The official claimed that they had received complaints about discrepancies in the NGO’s funds by its office-bearers.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocates Abdul Lateef Afridi and Fazal Ilahi argued that the organization was registered under the Societies Act, 1860, in which a mechanism had been provided to check the affairs of an organization. The counsel said the inspection team could only look into the affairs of government departments and not private organizations or individuals.

The petitioner pointed out that the organization was charged with embezzling Rs1.09 million of the family health project and social action programme though the entire project was worth Rs904,350. The organization had never received any funds from the social action programme.

The petitioner claimed that a head clerk of the inspection team, Inamullah Qureshi, without looking into the facts had sealed the office and misguided the provincial government about the issue.