PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday granted bail to two officers of the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, who were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, around six months ago on the charges of misappropriating funds.

A bench consisting of Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Mussarat Hilali accepted the petitions of procurement officer Pir Asfandyar and accounts officer Shafiqullah on the condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs2 million each.

The two were arrested by the NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on July 27, 2018, for allegedly embezzling millions of rupees allocated for the purchase of IT equipment, furniture, lab chemicals and equipment.

They were held by NAB for ‘embezzling’ millions of rupees

It was alleged that Pir Asfandyar and Shafiqullah in connivance with the then vice-chancellor, Dr Ihsan Ali, had illegally purchased substandard IT and lab equipment, chemicals and furniture from their blue-eyed contractors in violation of the procurement laws.

Lawyer Shabbir Hussain Gigyani appeared for Pir Asfandyar, whereas Sardar Ali Raza and Aamir Javed were counsel for Shafiqullah.

The counsel said the petitioners were charged for multiple offences by the NAB but were arrested in the case of procurement of different items.

They said the NAB had also filed a reference against their clients but it was returned by the accountability court in Nov in light of a high court judgment.

The counsel said the high court had declared that reference incomplete and pointed out that the Peshawar High Court while deciding some petitions filed by Dr Ihsan Ali and others last year had ruled that all inquiries against them, if converted into investigation, should be treated under a single reference and should be tried under one charge before the trial court.

Shabbir Gigyani said the NAB had yet to file a complete reference against the petitioners.

He said while the petitioners had been arrested, the NAB had not named the chairman and members of the procurement committee accused in the case.

The lawyer wondered how long the accused would be kept behind bars when the relevant reference hadn’t been filed yet.

The NAB prosecutor said the petitioners had misused their authority and illegally issued supply orders for the purchase of furniture at exorbitant rates to their favourite bidder.

APPOINTMENT ORDERED: A high court bench consisting of Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan expressed annoyance at the shortage of prosecutors appearing for the NAB in high court and directed the bureau to appoint competent officers at the earliest.

The bench while hearing different petitions pertaining to the NAB took exception to the shortage of NAB prosecutors and summoned the NAB regional director general.

DG Farmanullah Khan later turned up before the bench.

The bench observed that only a deputy prosecutor general and a prosecutor had been appearing before the high court and due to shortage of prosecutors with NAB cases had been delayed.

The DG said they had sent a letter to the NAB chairman on the matter and that the process for appointing prosecutors had already begun.

He said competent prosecutors would be appointed in near future to represent NAB before the court.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed observed that the NAB instead of focusing on its publicity in the media should pay heed to its performance.

He added that while deputy prosecutor general Mohammad Jamil and senior prosecutor Azeem Dad had been ably representing the NAB, they needed more prosecutors as the cases faced delay due to the presence of only two prosecutors.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2019