The inquiry ordered by Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui against a Rawalpindi judicial magistrate Nasir Javed Rana for remanding advocate Wahab Khairi to police custody without the latter's presence in the court is to begin at Lahore from February 1. The proceedings will be presided over by Muhammad Khalil Chaudhry, a member of the Governor's Inspection Team, who has sent out summons to about 10 witnesses, including Habib-ul-Wahab-al-Khairi, his son Owais and representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association assigned to defend the advocate.
The summons have also been sent to two persons, who wanted to provide bail guarantees in case Khairi's bail application was accepted. The summons received here on Friday morning do not specify the place where the inquiry officer will sit but since he has designated himself as an inquiry officer of the Lahore High Court, the witnesses presume it will be held in its premises.
Most of the witnesses as well as advocate Khairi and his lawyers plan to leave for Lahore on Sunday to be available at the High Court before 10 am, the time notified on the summons. This will be second sitting of the inquiry. The first was fixed for January 24 but only two witnesses appeared. Both were present in Lahore and had responded to news reports appearing in some newspapers.
Magistrate Nasir Javed Rana was suspended by the Chief Justice of Pakistan after a suo motu investigation by him in the reports that Advocate Wahab Khairi was remanded to the police custody in his absence.
The Chief Justice had acted on the basis of confessions by the police officers that they obtained the remand without producing him before the judicial magistrate as well the supporting evidence recorded by Khairi's colleagues that they had waited with bail application and bonds at the Court until its closing time but he was not produced there.
The New Town Police in Rawalpindi arrested Wahab Khairi on a report lodged against him some 38 years ago. The case involved the sale of a low-cost house in the Satellite Town that was subsequently decided by the Supreme Court.
Besides the inquiry against the judicial magistrate, the police officers involved in the case were suspended and also four Rawalpindi lawyers for filing "false affidavits to help Nasir Javed Rana" were restrained from appearing before any court until their cases were decided by the Punjab Bar Council.
The order passed on October 26 last year had fixed a timeframe for actions against all the persons identified by the Chief Justice.