LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has expressed its displeasure over the issuance of arrest warrant by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah against the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of Punjab and terming it as an advertisement without any evidence.
Sanaullah along with his lawyers appeared in the court on Monday on the summons of Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench.
During the hearing, Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench expressed his anger on the Additional Director General of ACE and questioned that where is the evidence against the Interior Minister?
The court remarked that the case against Sanaullah was based on a false narrative.
The Rawalpindi bench court had summoned the home minister to appear by 12 noon today. He also asked the Director General of ACE Punjab to appear.
Last week, the High Court suspended a non-bailable warrant issued against Sanaullah by a special magistrate for not appearing before an inquiry into a corruption case filed against him.
Rawalpindi bench issued notice to ACE and sought records related to the case.
On Friday, the Home Minister approached the court over falsification of records in a four-year-old case against ACE Punjab, saying it was misleading the court.
The development came after a plea filed by advocate Razzaq A Mirza, counsel for the Home Minister, which alleged that the ACE had obtained the warrants through misrepresentation.
The court had summoned the ACE along with the case records on October 17 (today).
Problem
On October 8, Rawalpindi Special Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Akbar issued Sanaullah’s arrest warrant at the request of ACE Punjab in an inquiry into a property in a housing society that was bought at a nominal price.
Earlier, Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Anti-Corruption Brigadier (Rtd) Mossadegh Abbasi while talking to the media said that Rana Sanaullah has been found guilty in the corruption case against him.
They said Sanaullah took two plots as a “bribe” from an “illegal housing society” — Bismillah Housing Scheme — in Chakwal district.
Abbasi said the ACE had initiated a land acquisition inquiry against the minister in 2017. He said that according to the inquiry, the owner of the housing society offered two plots of 10 kanals as bribe.
Abbasi added that the plots were transferred to Sanaullah at a much lower price than the fixed rate. He claimed that the plots are still in possession of the minister and his wife.
He noted that the investigation also revealed that the records of plots 18A and 139A were missing.
On October 8, PTI said on its official Twitter account that a non-bailable arrest warrant has been issued for Rana Sanaullah and a police party has been dispatched to arrest him.
