PESHAWAR: A bench of the Peshawar High Court on Monday granted bail to provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi arrested by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) on the charges of facilitating illegal mining and carrying out illegal appointments, transfers and postings.

Justice Mussarat Hilali and Justice Younas Taheem directed Ziaullah to furnish two surety bonds of Rs2 million each.

The bench pronounced the short order after hearing arguments of both the sides in a habeas corpus petition filed by Ziaullah’s brother, Hidayatullah Afridi, seeking the detainee’s release on different grounds.

Ziaullah Afridi, who was elected as an MPA of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the 2013 general elections from PK-1 Peshawar I, was arrested on July 9 by the KPEC on the charges of misuse of authority and corrupt practices.

Development comes after completion of minister’s 45-day remand in corruption case

He had denied the charges and claimed that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had engineered his arrest through the commission.

Lawyers Abdul Lateef Afridi, Barrister Mudassir Amir, Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Moazam Butt represented Ziaullah Afridi in the court and argued their client was falsely implicated in the case on the basis of mala fide intent.

They argued that under the KPEC Act 2014, a suspect could be remanded to custody of the commission by the Ehtesab court for 45 days.

The lawyers said since his arrest, their client had been in custody of the commission and had completed 45 days.

They added that in the KPEC Act, there was no provision of judicial custody after completion of physical remand and on the said ground several other suspects had already been granted bail.

Ziaullah Afridi pointed out that in the grounds of arrest provided to his brother, the commission had clearly mentioned that he had failed to exercise his authority to prevent loss to the exchequer caused by illegal mining rather he had willfully facilitated the same for his personal gains.

He added that to frustrate the provision of law related to the maximum 45 days custody, the commission had tried to hoodwink the Ehtesab court by seeking his repeated physical custody after completion of the initial one on the pretext that he was booked in new cases, whereas in fact the charges pertained to the same case.

Ziaullah Afridi said first, the commission claimed he was arrested in illegal mining and later insisted he was involved in illegal mining in Nowshera but sought his custody by alleging that he was involved in illegal mining in Charssada and Abbottabad.

He asked whether the commission wanted to keep him in its custody for the entire life.

KPEC deputy prosecutor general Zahid Aman contended that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had recently passed certain amendments to the KPEC Act through which the lacuna related to judicial custody had now been removed.

He said in the said amendments, it had now been provided that the Code of Criminal procedure would apply to the proceedings under this law.

Zahid Aman pointed out that physical custody of the suspect to the commission was granted by the Ehtesab court, which was a competent court under the law.

The petitioner’ lawyers argued that the amendments made to the law had yet to be notified as the relevant bill had not received assent of the governor.

They said the detainee had performed duties as minister for mineral development to the best of his abilities and that he got around 350 cases registered against the people involved in illegal mining.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2015

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