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| April 10, 2003 | Thursday | Safar 7, 1424 |
Official gets bail in Ghazi Barotha case
PESHAWAR, April 9: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court here on Wednesday granted bail to a land acquisition collector Mohammad Ali Shah in four cases pertaining to the Ghazi Barotha land acquisition scam.
The bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervaiz and Justice Ijazul Hassan, accepted his four writ petitions and directed that he should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs5,00,000 each.
Mr Shah was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau in Rawalpindi on Aug 11, 2001. He was serving as a deputy secretary, ministry of youth, sports and culture at the time of his arrest.
The NAB had claimed that the accused petitioner had embezzled funds in collusion with the land evaluation committees by cancelling rates of acquisition approved by the board of revenue, Punjab for villages Barotha and Dher and announced fresh awards for making pecuniary gains to fulfil selfish desires of other vested parties including land owners.
Advocate Qazi Mohammad Anwer appeared for the petitioner and argued that all the other accused in these references had already been released. He pointed out that the NAB had itself withdrawn cases against 14 of the co-accused in these references.
He argued that his client was not responsible for announcing the controversial award as he had only followed the recommendations of the land evaluation committee.
Mr Anwer argued that under the NAB Ordinance trial had to be completed within one month. He added that the accused was arrested in August 2001 and since then he is in prison. He contended that the petitioner was entitle to be released on bail on the ground of delay in his trial.
The deputy prosecutor-general of the NAB, Mian Fasihul Mulk opposed his bail, arguing that he was the prime accused in these cases.
Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court granted bail to a former director of primary education department, Shahjehan Khan, facing trial in a reference pertaining to misappropriation of funds in the primary education project. A two-member bench comprising Justice Khalida Rachied and Justice Nasirul Mulk ordered that the accused should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs 5,00,000 each.
However, he will remain in prison as his bail petition in an another reference has been pending before the high court and will be taken up for hearing on April 14.
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