LAHORE: Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Monday appeared before the Lahore High Court (LHC) in a case filed against him by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab on Monday.
The court’s Rawalpindi bench had summoned the interior minister to appear by 12pm today. It had also called for the director-general of ACE Punjab to appear.
Last week, the high court had suspended a non-bailable warrant against Sanaullah which was issued by a special magistrate for failing to appear in an inquiry regarding a corruption case filed against him.
The Rawalpindi bench also issued a notice to the ACE seeking the records related to the case.
On Friday, the interior minister approached the court against ACE Punjab for forging the records of a four-year-old case, saying that it was misleading the court.
The development came following a petition filed by the interior minister’s counsel advocate Razzaq A. Mirza on his behalf, which stated that the ACE has obtained the warrant through misrepresentation.
The court had summoned ACE along with the case records on October 17 (today).
The case
On October 8, a special judicial magistrate of Rawalpindi Ghulam Akbar issued the arrest warrant for Sanaullah at the request of ACE Punjab in an inquiry pertaining to an estate in a housing society that was purchased at a nominal price.
Earlier, Adviser to Punjab CM for Anti-Corruption Brigadier (retd) Musaddiq Abbasi told the media that Rana Sanaullah has been found guilty in the corruption case against him.
Sanaullah accepted two plots as a “bribe” from an “illegal housing society” — Bismillah Housing Scheme — in the Chakwal district, he said.
Abbasi said ACE launched the land acquisition inquiry in 2017 against the minister. As per inquiry, the housing society’s owner presented two plots measuring 10 kanals as a bribe, he said.
Abbasi added the plots were transferred to Sanaullah at a much lower price than the scheduled rate. The plots are still in the possession of the minister and his wife, he claimed.
He noted the probe also found that the records for plots 18A and 139A were missing.
On October 8, the PTI said on its official Twitter account that a non-bailable arrest warrant had been issued for Rana Sanaullah and a police party had left to arrest him.
