PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday granted interim pre-arrest bail to former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti’s brother, Amir Ghazan Khan, until April 10 in a case of the alleged irregularities and embezzlement in procurement of weapons for local police.

A bench comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Ikramullah Khan ordered Mr Ghazan to furnish two Rs10 million surety bonds for bail.

It also directed deputy prosecutor general of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Jamil Khan to produce record of the case on April 10, the next date of hearing.

However, the bench reserved judgment on the bail pleas of former provincial police officer Malik Naveed Khan and Mr Ghazan’s brother-in-law, Raza Ali, in the same case.

The judgement will be announced on April 10.

Mr Ghazan, who was abroad and his arrest warrants were issued by the NAB chairman in his absence, arrived a day earlier for appearance before the high court in a writ petition filed by him seeking his pre-arrest bail.

Mr Ghazan’s lawyer Qazi Jawad Ihsanullah said the case was fixed for preliminary hearing and it would be appropriate to issue notice to the NAB and summon record of the case.

He requested the bench to grant the interim pre-arrest bail to the petitioner until that time.

The NAB has charged Mr Ghazan of receiving kickbacks from one Arshad Majeed, a private contractor who were awarded most of the contracts of procurement of weapons and other items.

In the other two writ petitions, Barrister Zahoorul Haq appeared for Malik Naveed, whereas Umar Farooq Adam appeared for Raza Ali and deputy prosecutor general Mohammad Jamil Khan the NAB.

Mr Jamil informed the bench that in the same case, four military officers had already been convicted by a court martial and were sentenced to seven years imprisonment each with Rs30 million fine.

He said the four officials, including Colonel Iftikhar, Major Owais Chaudhry, Major Tabbasum and Major Khurram Sheikh, had given expert opinion regarding weapons and other items procured for police, including bulletproof jackets and ballistic-proof helmets.

Umar Farooq Adam said the only crime of Mr Raza was that he was the brother-in-law of Amir Ghazan, and the NAB wanted him to give a statement that he had received money from Arshad Majeed for Mr Ghazan.

He added that when the petitioner declined to record that false statement, he was falsely implicated in the case.

Mr Umar said the NAB had no other evidence and had been relying on the statement recorded by Arshad Majeed, a prime suspect in the case, and later turned approver after he paid millions of rupees voluntarily.

Mr Umar said to save his skin, Arshad Majeed had named several innocent people, an act based on mala fide intentions.

Barrister Zahoorul Haq said petitioner Malik Naveed was arrested on Nov 20 on the charge of procurement of substandard weapons.

He said apart from Malik Naveed, six other police officials, who were members of the purchase committee, were also charged in the case but the NAB chairman had issued arrest warrants only of the petitioner and not the other six officers, which showed discrimination on part of the NAB.

Barrister Zahoor said the accountability court recently declined to summon the said six officers in a reference as the NAB had not clearly spelled out their role in the alleged crime.

He said apart from merit, the petitioner was also entitled to be set free on bail on medical grounds as he had been suffering from depression and heart ailment.

Mr Jamil opposed the bail petitions and said a reference had already been filed before the court wherein several suspects had been charged of inflicting a loss of around Rs2 billion to the exchequer.