Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday rejected a petition seeking to stop Barrister Ali Zafar from investigating Jahangir Tareen case, declaring it non-maintainable, a private TV channel reported.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah expressed annoyance over petitions being filed which waste the court’s time. The case had been filed by a citizen Fahad Shahid.

As the hearing started, the chief justice instructed Deputy Attorney General Tayyab Shah to assist the bench pertaining to the case after studying it. The DAG adopted the stance that the petitioner is not an affected party in the subject. He said that an irrelevant person cannot file a case in criminal matters. The DAG said that the court shouldn’t hear such ‘strange and irrelevant’ cases.

The chief justice expressed displeasure at the court’s time being wasted and remarked that the criminal proceedings, in any case, are going on in Lahore which does not fall under IHC’s jurisdiction. “How will the common litigants get justice if such type of petitions are filed?” he questioned. After this, the court dismissed the case declaring it non-maintainable.

Barrister Ali Zafar was tasked last month by Prime Minister Imran Khan to probe allegations by Tareen as well as party members who support him that they have been targeted and politically victimised by state institutions and government representatives in high positions, especially Shahzad Akbar, the prime minister’s aide on accountability. The Federal Investigation Agency is conducting a probe into a sugar scam that led to a shortage of the commodity and prices rocketing sky high. The FIA in March last year had filed two cases against Tareen and his son Ali Tareen, on charges of Rs 5 billion money laundering and fraud in the said scam. Both are on interim bail till May 31.