' One Azhar Ayub submitted the application against Ijaz Hussain and Muhammad Aslam writ petitioners before the Chairman, Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar on 29-6-1998 bringing to his notice that Muhammad Aslam, petitioner, brother of Ijaz Hussain petitioner ex- President of Pakistan Peoples Party, deprived him of an amount of Rs,20,000 about three years before in lieu of getting him employed as a school teacher. According to Azhar Ayub the service was not provided to him and rather he was defrauded of the aforesaid amount of Rs,20,000 which was not being returned to him. He maintained that both Muhammad Aslam and Ijaz Hussain were criminally liable in the matter.
2. The Chairman, Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar summoned Ijaz Hussain and Muhammad Aslam writ petitioners who appeared at one stage when some preliminary inquiry was held during which they are said to have promised to get settled the matter on the oath of the Holy Qur'an. However, they are said to have resiled. On that the Chairman Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee sent the matter to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Saddar Bhakkar for registration of a criminal case of an offence of "Fraud". In the aforesaid background the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Saddar/SubDivisional Police Officer directed the S.H.O. Police Station, Saddar Bhakkar to proceed further in accordance with law. The said S.H.O. Registered F.I.R. No,349 on 29-9-1998 under section 406/420, Pakistan Penal Code. Feeling aggrieved Ijaz Hussain and Muhammad Aslam petitioners-accused filed this petition for the quashment of the said F.I.R. According to the petitioners even though the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Saddar Bhakkar was competent to pass the order under section 551 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the registration of the First Information Report within a police station under his command, he has proceeded in the matter on the direction of the Chairman, Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar with respect to an occurrence taking place three years before. They asserted that the Chairman Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee was not competent to hold any inquiry and to issue the direction to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Saddar Bhakkar.
3. The comments have been submitted by the Chairman, Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar as well as the Superintendent of Police, Bhakkar. In the comments submitted by the Chairman, Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee it is mentioned that no direction was issued to the Deputy Superintendent of Police Saddar Bhakkar for the registration of a case and that the existence of a cognizable offence was brought to his notice. The Superintendent of Police, Bhakkar also expressed same type of facts in his comments.
4. I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioners as well as the learned Assistant Advocate- General for the respondents and gone through the record before me. The admitted facts are that Azhar .Ayub submitted the application before the Chairman, Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar who summoned the parties and recorded the evidence. It was, thereafter, that he opined about the existence of a case of Fraud who moved the Deputy Superintendent of Police Saddar Bhakkar for the registration of a case. The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the Chairman or Vice-Chairman or Members of the Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee do not find any mention in the Code of Criminal Procedure and that none of them is competent to initiate any inquiry and to move the police to register the case. On the contrary learned Assistant Advocate-General laid the emphasis that only the existence of a cognizable offence was brought to the notice of the Deputy Superintendent of Police who passed the order under section 551 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the registration of a criminal case against the writ petitioners and that the case being under investigation there is no legal justification to quash the aforesaid F.I.R.
5. At the very outset I would express that with respect to the registration of a criminal case following provisions can be referred to:--
(i) Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure according to which every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence if given orally to an Officer Incharge of a Police Station shall be reduced to writing by him or under his direction and be read over to the informant.
(ii) Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure whereby any Magistrate empowered under section 190 may order the investigation into cognizable case. The District Magistrate and the Sub- Divisional Magistrate can also act under the same provisions of law.
(iii) Section 551 of the Code of Criminal Procedure according to which Police officer superior in rank to an Officer Incharge of a Police Station may exercise the same powers, throughout the local area to which they are appointed as may be exercised by such officer within the limits of his station. It is under this provision of law that the Deputy Superintendent of Police, the Additional Superintendent of Police, the Superintendent of Police, the Senior Superintendent of Police within the area of their respective command/control, Deputy Inspector-General of Police within his Range and the Inspector-General of Police, Punjab within the Province can pass the order of the registration of a criminal case in a police station which has to be complied with by the concerned Station House Officer of the Police Station.
(iv) Article 199 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 according to which this Constitutional Court has been empowered to pass the order for the registration of the criminal cases within the territorial limits of jurisdiction.
6. The Chairman Khidmat Committee, Vice-Chairman and other members find no mention in the Code of Criminal Procedure as well as in the Constitution, 1973 to hold the inquiry and to pass the order about the registration of a criminal case through the Deputy Superintendent of Police or the Station House Officer. In the instant matter the inquiry was held by the Chairman, Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar and thereafter, he sent the material to the Deputy Superintendent of Police Saddar Bhakkar for the registration of the case. It is proper to express that the Chairman, Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar sent the material collected by him during the inquiry with his letter for the registration of the case directly to the Deputy Superintendent of Police to project his authority in the area. It is proper to record that the matters of the instant nature are to be dealt with by the competent authorities and not by the Chairman of the Khidmat Committee Bhakkar. Legally the power and authority to set the law in motion is linked with the substantive jurisdiction without which the proceedings cannot be initiated and consequently processed with. The parallel set up of the Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar has no jurisdiction to initiate the inquiry and to get registered the criminal case by moving the competent Police Officer of any rank as adopted in the instant matter. It shall not be out of place to express that no legal or Constitutional Lover has been afforded to the Khidmat Committees and their working of the instant nature is enhancing polarization and widening the gulf between different grows in the society. It is a matter of common knowledge that the members and office- holders of the Khidmat Committees have the political affiliations' with the party in power who have not been elected through any election and have been nominated and the possibility of involving the members of the adverse political party at their instance in any criminal case, as in the instant case, cannot be ruled out. The transgression of authority and rather its use in the circumstances cannot be allowed keeping in view the social set up of the country and the future of the nation for whom the golden motto of Discipline, Unity and Faith has been provided and propagated by the father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Such type of orders are not taken in good taste by the competent Authority and obviously rightly being violative of discipline and codified law of the land. Practically the office-holders of the Khidmat Committees and its members shall try to hit the members of the opposition especially when they have not been elected through the democratic process and for whose selection the personal likes of the executive authorities and political persons in authority have stolen the eminence and played the part.
7. The crux of the matter is that the F.I.R. Required and desired to be quashed has been registered after an inquiry held by the Chairman Sub-Divisional Khidmat Committee, Bhakkar who moved the Deputy Superintendent of Police Saddar, Bhakkar in the matter and who has no jurisdiction thereof having no status whatsoever of any type in the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Constitution, 1973. I hold that the relevant F.I.R. No,349, dated 29-9-1998 registered at Police Station Bhakkar under section 406/420, Pakistan Penal Code has to fall like a house of cards.
8. I, therefore, accept this writ petition and quash the aforesaid F.I.R. No,349, dated 29-9-1998 registered at Police Station Saddar, Bhakkar under section 406/420, Pakistan Penal Code leaving the parties to bear their own costs. However, Azhar Ayub may proceed in accordance with law afresh before the Court/Executive Authority of competent jurisdiction. pump.