PESHAWAR: A bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday reserved its decision on bail pleas in an illegal mining contract case for Oct 28.

The pleas were filed by former mines and mineral development minister and PPP leader Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb, former secretary of the department Shah Wali Khan, alleged front man of the minister Shahzada Ehteshamul Mulk, deputy director of the department Khan Badshah, and senior geologist of the mineral directorate Nauroz Khan.

They face the charge of involvement in the illegal award of a lucrative mining contract to a woman schoolteacher and thus causing Rs360 million loss to the exchequer.

Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mohammad Younas Taheem heard marathon arguments of lawyers representing the National Accountability Bureau Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and reserved the verdict.

The high court had earlier granted bail on Sept 22 to four other suspects in the case including former additional secretary of mines department Asmatullah Gandapur, who was serving as commissioner Bannu Division at the time of his arrest, senior inspector of mines Ziarat Khan, section officer Farhad Ali and assistant director (litigation) Pervez Khan.

Ex-minister, ex-secretary, three officials face charge of involvement in award of illegal mining contract

NAB senior prosecutor Umar Farooq said the former minister in connivance with other suspects in the case had misused his authority in awarding prospecting license to a schoolteacher, Rukhsana Jawed, of 500 acres of proven deposits of phosphate instead of auctioning the said site for mining.

He said the Sarhad Development Authority held an area of 1200 acres of phosphate under Mining Lease from 1985 to 2005.

Umar Farooq said the area was surrendered back in 2005 and was required to be put through open auction as per Mining Concession Rules (MCR) 2005.

He added that Rukhsana Jawed applied for prospecting license (PL) of the stated land in 2004 however that application was rejected.

The woman later went into litigation against the department.

He contended that an illegal settlement committee was formed by the secretary and the PL was given to her in return of withdrawing her court cases. He added that the said lessee illegally excavated phosphate in collaboration with front man of the minister Ehteshamul Mulk and jointly caused a loss of Rs360 million to the provincial exchequer.

He argued that in an illegal manner the minister presided over a meeting on Jan 1, 2009, and on Jan 21, 2009, he signed minutes of the said meeting two days after the said lady entered into a partnership with his front man on Jan 19, 2009.

He contended that the prospective license of the area was given to her in return of petty amount of Rs15,000 which was the license fee despite the fact that the said site had proved deposits of phosphate. He pointed out that an adjacent site, which had also proven deposits of phosphate was leased out mining for Rs118 million, which showed how loss was inflicted to the exchequer.

Barrister Mudassir Ameer, Aamir Jawed and Arshad Ali represented Shah Wali, Mehmood Zeb and Ehteshamul Mulk, whereas advocate Sardar Ali Raza appeared for Khan Badshah and Nauroz.

The argued that in this case the NAB had shown factitious loss to the exchequer as there was no proven deposits of phosphate at the said site.

They contended that lessee Rukhsana Jawed was awarded prospecting license of the said site as she had engaged in lengthy legal wrangling with the department and finally a settlement committee decided to award the license to her.

Aamir Jawed said under the Rules of Business of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the minister was a policymaker and not a decision-maker.

He added that an inspection team had visited the said site and had given report that there were no proven deposits of phosphate there.

Barrister Mudassir argued that the NAB case was based on hearsay that the Sarhad Development Authority had many years ago mentioned the said site as having proven deposits of phosphate.

He added that even after starting of the inquiry in present case the NAB had not sent any technical team to ascertain whether there were deposits of phosphate there and that the petitioner had committed illegality by awarding prospecting license instead of mining license to the lessee.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2015

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