A court in Islamabad on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur after he failed to appear in a case related to the alleged recovery of liquor and illegal weapons.

The district and sessions court ordered that the chief minister be arrested and presented before the court on September 17.

Judicial Magistrate Mubashir Hassan Chishti heard the case and issued fresh warrants after no representative appeared on behalf of the chief minister.

Lawyer’s plea rejected

Later, Gandapur’s lawyer Raja Zahoor-ul-Hassan appeared in court and requested it to suspend the arrest warrants. However, the judge rejected the plea.

On this occasion, Judge Mubashir Hassan Chishti told the lawyer, “Produce the accused, and I will cancel the warrants.”

The lawyer replied, “Sir, it’s (warrants news) already been aired on the media — the damage is done.” To which the judge remarked, “What can I do about the media? Even a junior lawyer could have come and requested for a new date.”

Case background

The case against Ali Amin Gandapur was registered at Bara Kahu Police Station in Islamabad.

This is not the first time the court has taken such action — on July 19, the Islamabad District and Sessions Court had also issued arrest warrants in the same case, which had gone unenforced.