An Islamabad district and sessions court on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, demanding that he be detained and produced before the court by Monday.
Last month, Gandapur appeared before the district and sessions court in a hearing related to the illegal arms and liquor case registered at Bhara Kahu police station.
The CM appeared before Judicial Magistrate Mubashir Hassan Chishti along with his counsel, Raja Zahoorul Hassan. The defence argued that the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had already granted Gandapur interim bail until July 3, and requested the suspension of the non-bailable arrest warrant issued earlier.
The court ordered that Gandapur submit his response under Section 342 (power to examine the accused) of the Criminal Procedure Code. The CM informed the court that he would file the response after the presentation of the KP budget. Following this assurance and his appearance, the court suspended the arrest warrants and adjourned the case until July 2.
Today, Magistrate Chishti issued the arrest warrant, which is available with Dawn.com, under Sections 143 (punishment for joining unlawful assembly), 144 (joining unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 145 (joining or continuing in unlawful assembly, knowing it has been commanded to
disperse) and 440 (mischief committed after preparation made causing death or hurt) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Sections 13 (penalty for breaching sections 4, 5, 8 and 11), 20 (power to confiscate) and 65 () of the Arms Ordinance, 1965.
Sections 4, 5, 8 and 11 of the ordinance deal with the prohibition of the unlicenced sale and repair of firearms, the prohibition of transporting them, the prohibition of being armed without a licence and the power to make rules as to licences.
“You are hereby directed to arrest the said accused and produce him before the court” on July 21, the arrest warrant — addressed to the station house officer at the Bara Kahu police station — read.
The court order from today’s hearing — also available with Dawn.com — noted that Gandapur had been granted bail by the PHC until September 23 this year, but noted that the court was not party to that order.
“If the local police in Islamabad execute the warrants of arrest issued by this court, such action would not be in conflict with the order of the Honourable High Court (PHC), because the same would be in pursuance of arrest warrants issued by this court with regard to pending case before it,” the order read.
“Furthermore, the restraining order is specifically directed at the respondents mentioned therein and not to this court; therefore, this court holds the authority to issue the arrest warrants against the accused due to his non-appearance in a case pending before it for trial from more than last eight years.”
Since the trial had been ongoing for eight years and Gandapur had been absent from court, it found that there was “no reason to grant exemption to the accused from appearance”.
The court, according to the order, has given Gandpur one last chance to appear and record his statement under Section 342 of the CrPC, stating that the case has remained pending for the recording of the statement for the past 14 months.
“The accused was required to record his statement … however, he has been deliberately delaying the matter without any justifiable reason,” the order read.
“The court is not obligated to keep the matter pending endlessly for the recording of the accused’s statement under Section 342 CrPC. Accordingly, the accused is hereby directed to record his statement under Section 342 Cr.P.C. on the next date of hearing without fail. Failing this, the court may proceed to announce the verdict without waiting for his statement.”
The court has adjourned the hearing of the case until July 21.
