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       PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Wednesday stopped anti-corruption establishment (ACE), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from arresting former chief minister Mahmood Khan in the light of an FIR registered against him over a decade-old issue from the time when he was provincial minister for sports.

       A bench consisting of PHC Chief Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel issued notice to ACE, seeking its response to a petition filed by Mahmood Khan requesting for quashing of an FIR registered against him on Oct 3, 2024.

       The bench fixed June 18 for next hearing of the case. The bench also directed to club the plea with another petition filed by former additional director general sports, Tariq Mahmood (now retried), who has also been charged along with Mahmood Khan in the said FIR.

       Advocate Sultan Mohammad Khan appeared for Mahmood Khan and stated that his client had received a notice on Sept 3, 2024, which declared that an inquiry was going on regarding the petitioner’s tenure as the provincial minister and as such was related to events that were almost about a decade old.

       High court issues notice to ACE for response to petition

       He said that the inquiry was started by ACE over a ‘source report’ on the matter when he was the sports minister in the cabinet of the then chief minister Pervez Khattak.

       He said that ACE had alleged that as a provincial minister, Mahmood had transferred government funds to the tune of Rs1.8 million to his personal accounts for onward distribution among deserving players.

       He argued that the petitioner had challenged the inquiry through an earlier petition, he came to know that ACE had subsequently registered the FIR in the matter following which he field the instant petition for quashing the FIR.

       Mr Sultan said that his client had been elected multiple times to important public offices, including nazim, MPA, provincial minister and chief minister.

       He said that the people of the province in general and that of Swat area in particular had time and again reposed their trust in Mr Mahmood because of his selfless services provided to the people.

       The counsel said that the last general elections were held on Feb 8, 2024, which led to the formation of a new government both at federal and provincial levels. He added that the newly-formed provincial government was that of the petitioner’s political rivals.

       He claimed that the provincial government had been continuously trying to harass and intimidate the petitioner with various tactics, including taking away his security and other staff as permitted under the law to a former chief minister.

       He said that the developmental schemes launched by the petitioner, when he was chief minister, had also been dropped by the present government just to victimise him.

       He claimed that the respondents, including the ACE director and its circle inspector, were pursuing the matter against the petitioner despite there being no case made against him just to provide fake results of their performance to the high-ups.

       He contended that the impugned FIR was in violation of several constitutional provisions including articles 4, 9, 10, 10A, 13, 14, 15 etc, and was liable to be quashed by the high court.

       Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2025