LAHORE, Jan 9: The chief justice of the Lahore High Court on Thursday ordered that all police officials be recalled from Army Monitoring Teams (AMTs), and sought defence ministry’s written reply to the allegation that one of the teams was harassing citizens and still interfering in civilian affairs.

The court expressed dissatisfaction over state’s reply to its earlier order and told the ministry of defence to file a reply to the petition by Jan 14.

The chief justice warned that the court would start summoning the army officials concerned and initiate legal proceedings against them in case the reply was not filed.

These directions were issued by the CJ on a petition against the harassment of a citizen at the hands of AMT officials, who included a police official, Mohammad Shahid.

On the last hearing, the chief justice had questioned the induction of police officials in AMTs and asked the state to submit a reply.

The chief justice ordered that Inspector Mohammad Shahid, working as a personal secretary to AMT official Col Mohammad Tariq, and all other police officials serving the AMTs be recalled forthwith. The petitioner should not appear before the AMT even if summoned, he added.

Earlier, the additional advocate-general had produced the Sept 19 order for recruitment of police officials in the AMTs. The chief justice, however, refused to accept that order, saying that it had lost its validity in the present circumstances and had no legal standing.

Representing the federal government, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Dr Danishwar Malik submitted that he had talked to the officials concerned in both the ministry of defence and the AMT, who had denied the allegation of harassment.

The DAG quoted the officials as saying they were simply trying to complete the “unfinished” work by entertaining those complaints that were filed before the abolition of AMTs. The officials claimed that though the army monitoring cell had been abolished, its complaint cell was functioning to redress the complaints.

The CJ, however, observed that an army official had no justification for interfering in a civil matter in any capacity and told the ministry of defence to explain to him in writing as to why police officials had been recruited in the army.

The petitioner, Asad Ayub, alleged that he had been harassed and forced by Col Tariq and the Allama Iqbal Town SHO into signing a document that required him to pay Rs1.2 million to Mohammad Jamshed.