The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench suspended Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s arrest warrant on Friday in connection with an investigation into the purchase of plots in a housing society at a “throwaway price.”
Sanaullah was issued an arrest warrant by Special Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Akbar’s court last week.
According to retired Brigadier Musaddiq Abbasi, Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister for Anti-Corruption, Sanaullah took two plots as a “bribe” from an “illegal housing society” — the Bismillah Housing Scheme — in Chakwal district.
Taking up a petition filed by PML-N lawyers against the warrant today, Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan halted the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment’s (ACE) arrest and raid on the minister’s home.The court has asked ACE to provide the case record by October 17.
On October 10, an ACE team returned empty-handed from Islamabad’s Secretariat Police Station after failing to arrest Sanaullah due to the Islamabad police’s “lack of cooperation.”
The Islamabad police, on the other hand, claimed that ACE refused to present the case file.
Meanwhile, Sanaullah accused the anti-corruption department of “tampering with records” and “misleading the court” in a four-year-old case against him earlier this week.
“ACE obtained the warrant by intentionally concealing facts and deceiving and misleading the court.” This is why they are concealing the case records, as well as the warrant, which is a legal requirement,” the minister said, adding that he would take ACE to court.”During the investigation, it was discovered that Rana Sanaullah, the provincial law minister at the time, and his wife attended the opening ceremony of Bismillah Housing Society, Colony Kallar Kahar.”
“The housing society’s owner gave Mr Sanaullah two plots measuring 10 kanals as a bribe,” the adviser said, adding that the plots in question were transferred to Sanaullah at a much lower than scheduled rate by the society.
Abbasi stated that the two plots were still in the possession of Sanaullah and his wife, which was “proof” that he obtained them as a bribe by using his official position.
He stated that the case was filed in 2019, but the minister did not appear before ACE.
