Controversial civil judge of Booni made OSD

By Zulfiqar Ahmad
ISLAMABAD, April 4: The civil judge of Booni, Rehmatullah Mehsood, was made officer on special duty (OSD) on Friday by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and directed to report back to Peshawar.

Talking to ChitralToday on telephone from Peshawar, Registrar PHC Arshad Khan confirmed that the civil judge had been made OSD. Besides, he added, a show-cause notice had also been issued to him. He stated that the judge would also be suspended after he replies to the show-cause notice.

The decision to make the judge OSD was taken by the PHC after a story about his alleged romance with a Chitrali woman was published in ChitralToday and which was later brought into the notice of the PHC Registrar Arshad Khan.

The PHC registrar stated that the story published in ChitralToday had been made part of the record and the district and sessions judge Chitral Shafiq Ahmed Tanoli had been appointed as the inquiry officer to dig into the matter.  He said he had categorically directed the sessions judge to hold a through probe into the matter without any fear and favour, adding the Chitralis are civilized people and such kind of indecent activities would create unrest among them.

It may be noted that when people of Chitral reported to the local police that the judge had lodged in a hotel along with the divorced woman the district administration headed by the deputy commissioner and the police remained unmoved to take action against the judge.

“I’ve written against him to the high-ups but I’m not sure whether he will be transferred or not as he [civil judge] is a well-connected man and very influential,” the deputy commissioner of Chitral was quoted by the local media while speaking at a function with repeated requests not to quote him in the press.

When this correspondent tried to contact the DC, he nether picked his phone nor bothered to reply to the text messages sent on his cellphone.

The local lawyers who could be seen making tall claims had literally given up before the civil judge Booni after he tightened the noose around them, deposing of the cases within no time and at times helping the poor litigants not to hire lawyers and instead explain their cases to him by themselves.

The latest incident has also exposed the so-called champions of Chitrali culture who could be seen taking pride in their culture, dancing to the tune of drumbeats whenever they get an opportunity like jugglers but nobody dares to speak a single word when an outsider made them hostage.