A judge of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench, has remarked that the institutions have become political tools as they register a case and when the political scene changes, they request for quashing of the case, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
The judge of the LHC, Rawalpindi bench, Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan expressed these remarks on Friday during the hearing of a case pertaining to an inquiry against Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah into purchase of plots by him in a housing society at ‘throwaway prices’.
The Anti-Corruption Establishment team and lawyers were present in the court. Interior Minister Sanaullah also appeared before the court along with his legal team.
Strict security arrangements were made on this occasion.
At the outset of the hearing, Punjab Anti-Corruption director general took a U-Turn and told the court that Sanaullah should not be arrested in this case.
On this, the judge smiled and remarked that he (ACE DG) resolved this issue easily. But the court would hear the case as per the court challan, Justice Sadaqat Khan said adding that once the challan was presented in the court, the name of the accused could not be excluded from the case.
The judge inquired whether the case was direct or it was based on a source report.
The investigation officer said that the case was registered on a source report compiled by deputy director Abdul Rehman.
The court directed to follow the Moonis Elahi case in this matter.
Justice Sadaqat Khan also said if the anti-corruption gave this statement that it did not want to arrest Sanaullah, the court would right away dispose of the case, otherwise the ACE would have to be accountable.
The judge warned that he would see to it that the ACE DG would not hold his office in case of false statement. He observed that our departments had become a tool, they should be ashamed of themselves. He remarked let the politicians fight their own fights.
“Institutions have become a political tool. One (authority) comes and registers a case and then the other (authority) comes and requests for cancellation of the same case,” the judge remarked.
After this, the judge disposed of the petition seeking cancellation of the arrest warrants for the interior minister.
It is pertinent to mention here that the high court has suspended arrest warrants for the interior minister in this case.
On Oct 8, a special judicial magistrate in Rawalpindi issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Interior Minister Sanaullah for not appearing before the Anti-Corruption Establishment in connection with a corruption inquiry.
An ACE team went to Islamabad to arrest Sanaullah but they failed to do so as the concerned police station’s SHO refused to comply with the orders.
On Oct 10, the court again issued fresh arrest warrants for interior minister but the ACE team again could not arrest Sanaullah citing "lack of cooperation" from the Islamabad police.
Reporter Usman Javed