PESHAWAR: A special anti-corruption court has granted bail to three former lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, who were arrested by the anti-corruption establishment on the charge of making illegal appointments to government departments in Lower Dir district.

Senior special judge (anti-corruption) Babar Ali Khan accepted a joint bail petition of former lawmakers Shafiullah Khan, Mohammad Azam and Liaqat Ali on condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs80,000 each.

The ACE registered an FIR against the petitioners on Oct 10, 2023, insisting that they learned from reliable sources that the three former MPAs made illegal appointments to the education and local government departments during the PTI government with the connivance of officers concerned.

It added that those illegal appointments totalling 25 cost the exchequer Rs18.32 million.

Shafiullah, Azam, Liaqat filed joint petition with anti-graft court

Advocate Alam Khan Adenzai appeared for the petitioners and insisted that his clients were implicated in a politically-motivated fake case.

He added that as the petitioners declined to leave PTI and continued to support party chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan, the case in question was registered against them to victimise them.

The lawyer claimed that his clients were not “staff appointing authorities” in those departments and had no connection with any departmental appointments.

The judge observed that the FIR declared that the matter took place in the year 2020-21 at an ‘unknown time’, it was reported on July 10, 2023, and the FIR was registered on Oct 10, 2023, clearly showing that there was a delay of almost two and a half years between the date of the event and that of the reporting of the matter.

He added that the petitioners were neither an appointing authority nor were they members of the district selection committee, so prima facie, they could not be connected with the case in hand.

The court observed that sections of the law mentioned in the FIR didn’t attract any of the provisions of the restrictive clause of Section 497(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Meanwhile, an additional district and sessions judge confirmed the pre-arrest bail to former MPA Fazal Ilahi and PTI leader Irfan Saleem in two cases.

An FIR was registered against Fazal Ilahi and several other citizens by the local police in Rehman Baba police station over a girl station attack.

The police insisted that the accused protested power suspension to the area, stormed the grid station and forcibly restored power supply to the area.

Advocate Ali Zaman appeared for Fazal Ilahi and contended that there was “not a single evidence of wrongdoing” against his client, who was implicated in the case on political grounds.

Similarly, petitioner Irfan Saleem was named in an FIR registered at the Faqirabad police station against the May 9-10 violent protests in the area.

His counsel claimed that the petitioner didn’t participate in those protests and that no evidence was available to connect him with the offence.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2023