Government suspends Hussain Asghar over directives of Supreme Court

Over the directives of the Supreme Court, the government on Thursday suspended Hussain Asghar and presented the notification of his suspension to the court.

A three-judge bench of the apex court with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing of the suo moto case of corruption in Hajj scandal. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain were among the other judges in the bench.

Attorney General Irfan Qadir submitted the notification of suspension of Inspector General of Gilgit-Baltistan Hussain Asghar to the court after it ordered to do so, saying that the matter was brought to the information of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.

Earlier on Wednesday, the chief justice said that the law will be implemented whether anyone liked it or not. He further said that those who considered themselves above the law were forced to step down in the past.

He said, “The courts had to strike a balance during proceedings and not go against anyone indiscriminately and everyone had to abide by the rule of law”.

The bench last day ordered the government to suspend Hussain Asghar for his perceived defiance of court’s rulings to report back to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The court on several occasions had asked for return of the FIA’s former director to his parent department to resume investigation into the Haj scandal, but every time it was informed that he was still looking after matters relating to law and order in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The court was of the opinion that the said officer could be brought back to the investigative agency within few hours is the government is seriously committed to do so.

The bench also issued directives to Attorney General Irfan Qadir to take Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on board about return of Asghar to the FIA and submit a compliance report to the court.

Hussain Asghar, who failed to appear before the court, was serving as IGP Gilgit-Baltistan and was formerly heading the FIA team investigating the Haj scam when he was appointed IGP GB.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jul 19 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.