April 30, 2003	Wednesday	Safar 27, 1424

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MUZAFFARABAD, April 29: AJK Ehtesab Court No I granted bail here on Tuesday to a former AJK minister and three others alleged to be involved in embezzlement in a hydel power project.

The Ehtesab Court judge Syed Nisar Hussain Shah ordered the release of the accused in the packed courtroom on production of bail bond with two sureties each in the sum of Rs5 million with personal bond in the same amount.

The accused included Khwaja Farooq Ahmed, the former electricity minister and PPAJK’s secretary information, Zaheer Sheikh, director AJK Hydro Electric Board (HEB), Niaz Mahmud, chief consultant M/S Mart McDonald Pakistan (MMP), and Imtiaz Sheikh of M/S Northern Enterprises which had facilitated the agreement as middleman between the AJK government and the French and Swedish consortium.

The former minister and HEB official were arrested on April 14 from here while the other two were apprehended from Islamabad two days later. The bureau had charged the former minister with sanctioning, during a visit to Paris, the change in the design of the project which “had led to increase in its cost and thus went to the benefit of the contractor.”

Furthermore, he was also accused of allotting a contract worth Rs160 million of construction of transmission line and sub-station to a particular firm against kickbacks. However, interestingly, during the proceedings of the bail application it was revealed that the accused had written a dissenting note on the relevant file in this regard.

The counsel for Mr Farooq had also pleaded that the so-called change in the design was approved in 1994 when their client was not holding any official position, not even the member of the assembly.

In his decision, the judge said that since the case demanded further investigation, the accused were entitled to grant of bail. The court can reach any conclusion only after further investigation, he said.

Witnesses said more than four hundred supporters of the detained leader were present on the premises of the court.

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