The Lahore High Court (LHC) termed on Monday the non-bailable arrest warrant against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah “a joke” and deemed it illegal.
The Rawalpindi bench of the LHC was hearing a petition filed by the interior minister seeking withdrawal of the arrest warrant against him.
Last week, the bench had suspended Sanaullah’s arrest warrant issued in an inquiry related to the purchase of plots in a housing society at a “throwaway price”.
Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan had also stopped the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) from arresting the minister and raiding his house. The court has sought the case record from ACE by October 17.
During the proceedings today, the ACE informed the court that the FIR alleges that “Rana Sanaullah and his wife bought property, but his name is not mentioned”, adding that the reference to the PML-N leader has been made by mentioning him as a “provincial minister”.
Dismayed by the information received, the court remarked “there is nothing against Rana Sanaullah, why don’t we send you to jail?”.
“There have been thousands of provincial ministers,” the court added.
“Explain how this (alleged) corruption became bribe,” the court said, “prove this; pray tell who did Rana Sanaullah bribe? What is the crime?”
“The civil judge issued illegal warrants without looking at the record,” said the judge.
“Whether the allocation of plots is correct or not is the issue of the owner,” remarked the court, “you [ACE] tell us where is the corruption?”
“Was the land bought below the District Collector (DC) rate?” questioned the court, noting that in that case a fine could be imposed but would instead be deemed a case of “Sanaullah being cheated” who, as the buyer “should have been protected” by the ACE.
“Who is the witness that said Sanaullah had taken a bribe?” inquired the court, warning that if it would not be satisfied by the ACE, then the body’s director would be “sent to jail”.
“This is a joke,” the judge remarked, “whoever the institution pleases it deems a criminal and issues an arrest warrant”.
The LHC adjourned the hearing till October 28 while ordering the anti-corruption body to appear with “full preparation” and also ordered the interior minister and DG anti-corruption to appear before the court.
“I have challenged this lousy attempt on part of the Punjab government and Imran Niazi,” Sanaullah said as he expressed hope to be avenged by the high court.
‘Conspiracy of Punjab govt’
Speaking to the media outside the court, the interior minister said that “when the Punjab government could not find anything else against us, they registered fake cases”.
He also claimed that “all this was done at the request of the DG Anti-corruption Punjab”, adding that the case was in fact “three years old” and Sanaullah was “not even named in it, nor am I in any way connected to it”.
“Out of nowhere, a joint investigation team (JIT) was formed a month ago and the record was tampered with,” alleged Sanaullah.
“The magistrate was misled by misrepresentation in the subordinate court,” he added, “my warrant was obtained by stating false facts, and they tried to defame me by releasing it to the media”.
It may be noted that earlier, Rawalpindi’s Senior Civil Judge (Criminal Division) Ghulam Akbar had issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the interior minister.
The ACE had alleged that Sanaullah purchased two plots in Bismillah Housing Scheme, located in Kallar Kahar area, at a price lower than the scheduled rate. It further claimed that both the plots were given to Sanaullah as a bribe.
Although the court had issued the arrest warrant, the ACE officials failed to arrest the minister due to a “lack of cooperation” from the police.
Two days later, a fresh arrest warrant was issued for the ACE to immediately arrest the minister and produce him before the court. However, the ACE team had returned empty-handed again.
The previous arrest warrant had only one address of the minister mentioned, whereas it was requested to add more addresses in the fresh warrant.
The minister, in a statement after the ACE’s second attempt to arrest him with the fresh warrant, alleged that the ACE committed “forgery” after becoming a tool of its “political masters” in a four-year-old case.
He said that the ACE “did not fulfil the legal requirement of providing case record with the arrest warrant,” adding that the move was a nefarious conspiracy to influence the federal government to get some relief for “Imran fitna” – a reference to former premier Imran Khan.
Sanaullah had claimed that action would be taken against all those involved in “committing forgery and misleading the court”, and that he will approach the court against the officials concerned
