LAHORE: A judicial magistrate has acquitted a former secretary of the widow of late governor Salman Taseer in a cheque dishonour case.

Amina Taseer, the widow of the former governor, got the case registered with Old Anarkali police station in 2018 against Samira Ahmad on charges of causing six company’s cheques of Rs50,000 each dishonoured.

However, the accused took a plea that the complainant allegedly prepared a forged gift deed in favour of her son to exclude other children and legal heirs of Mr Taseer. She alleged that the complainant compelled her to sign the posthumous gift deed as a witness but when she refused, the complainant became inimical to her, terminated her, forcibly took her company-provided car and the cheque book in that car was used to lodge the FIR.

A lawyer for the accused argued that the complainant mentioned issuance of six cheques in the FIR, but five of them were neither presented for encashment nor handed over to the police for making it part of the investigation.

He stated that the FIR was grudge motivated as it was lodged more than four years after the alleged occurrence.

Judicial Magistrate Hamid ur Rehman Nasir, in his July 4 order, observed that the prosecution remained badly failed to establish the foundational essential constituents of section 489-F of PPC beyond shadow of doubt and the charge was not proved against the accused.

The magistrate acquitted the accused, who was on bail, of the charge extending the benefit of the doubt in her favour.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2025