PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday ordered the restoration of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit contractors’ bank accounts that aren’t related to the bus project.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmad directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to unfreeze the BRT companies and their directors’ bank accounts and assets of other projects.

It issued the orders after holding a preliminary hearing into a petition jointly filed by the contractors and their directors against the freezing of 75 of their bank accounts by the NAB and its subsequent confirmation by an accountability court during a corruption investigation.

The petition was filed by multiple companies, including joint ventures of Chinese and Pakistani construction firms, which were awarded contracts for the three BRT portions by the government.

They took NAB to court over issue

The petitioners also include three directors against whom the action was taken by the NAB, i.e., Amir Latif and Imran Latif of Ch. A. Latif and Sons Limited (Calsons) and Syed Masood Hussain Shah of Maqbool Associates.

They insisted that 75 bank accounts were maintained in different banks in the name of Maqbool Associates, Calsons, and Sichuan Province Geological Engineering Complex-Maqbool-Calsons JV.

Senior lawyer Shumail Ahmad Butt appeared for the petitioners and contended that the petitioners were companies of international repute that had carried out the BRT project with mutual collaboration.

He added that the NAB had started a probe into the project, so notices were issued to the companies and their directors from time to time.

The lawyer contended that the companies were carrying out important projects across the country as well as abroad.

He said the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa director general, Waqar Ahmad Chauhan, had issued the freezing orders for those bank accounts under Section 12 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, on March 13 and referred them to the court for confirmation.

Mr Butt said that the administrative judge of the accountability courts had pronounced orders endorsing the decision of the NAB’s director general.

He said the Chinese and Pakistani companies and their directors had earlier also filed separate petitions challenging the proceedings started by the bureau against them.

The lawyer argued that the bureau had issued a general freezing order through which even bank accounts not related to the BRT projects had also been frozen.

He contended that the impugned order had been affecting the day-to-day affairs of the petitioners related to projects other than the BRT.

NAB deputy prosecutor general Mohammad Ali contended that if interim relief was given to the petitioners, it would not be possible to ascertain which amount had been withdrawn from the accounts—the one related to BRT or otherwise.

He contended that several bank accounts were jointly maintained for different projects, including the BRT project.

The bench wondered if the petitioners would assure it of not “touching the bank accounts related to the BRT project.”

Mr Butt answered in the affirmative and said his clients would operate only those bank accounts that were meant for other projects.

The petitioners contended that the accountability court had no jurisdiction to confirm the freezing order issued by the NAB, as it could only be issued by a court trying the accused, while the petitioners had not been facing any trial.

They added that the JV contractors had approached the International Court of Arbitration by invoking the provisions of the contract and seeking payment of Rs57 billion on account of the outstanding disputed amount.

The petitioners said under the contract, the NAB had no authority or mandate to look into the BRT project’s affairs and harass them.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2024