ACE official draws SHC’s ire after he approached Hyderabad bench in same case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday took exception to conduct of Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) officials for suppressing the court orders in an inquiry pertaining to a tractor subsidy scheme.

The high court also directed the chief secretary to initiate disciplinary proceedings if necessary against the ACE director and investigation officer for their dishonest acts.

The direction came on a petition of businessman Shahzad Riaz against harassment and inquiries initiated by ACE at the behest of his rivals. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the high court had directed ACE not to harass the petitioner and complete the inquiry against him within one month but the investigation officer in his own capacity moved a single bench of the SHC in Hyderabad and concealed the earlier high court order in instant matter.

A division bench of the high court headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that investigation officer Irfan Ali Arbab, who was also facing contempt of court proceedings, misled the SHC’s single bench through concealment of facts and obtained an order for the trial court for not entertaining the bail application of the petitioner.

The bench observed that prima facie it appeared that ACE had some extraneous grievance against Riaz and from a brief glance of the record, it appeared that ACE was deliberately hounding him and acting against him in a mala fide manner that amounted to violation of court orders.

The high court issued a fresh contempt of court notice to the investigation officer seeking a reply to why he should not be proceeded for contempt of court for deliberately violating and concealing in a mala fide manner, the earlier order of the court in order to mislead the SHC’s single bench.

The SHC directed the chief secretary to look into the conduct of the IO and ACE Director Shahzad Fazal Abbasi who allowed such an application to be moved in a personal name instead of ACE as required by the law.

The bench directed the chief secretary to take disciplinary action if necessary against ACE officials for their prima facie mala fide and dishonest acts which seemed to militate against a fair inquiry in the case.

The high court also directed the chief secretary to submit a report on proceedings against the delinquent officers on the next date of hearing. The bench directed the IO and ACE director to submit a compliance report with regard to withdrawal of petition from the Hyderabad circuit court.

The petitioner had alleged in the plea that he was dealing with import and selling of agriculture tractors and was being implicated in false cases on the instigation of the Omni group being his competitors. He submitted that inquiries had been initiated by ACE officials without any substantial evidence as the respondents had failed to appreciate that the subsidy programme of 2012-13 was so transparent and tractors were delivered under the supervision of agriculture officials on merit.

The court had on November10 disposed of the petition after a statement of the chief secretary and ACE director that no further inquiry shall be initiated against the petitioner in respect of the tractor subsidy scheme for any further period.