PESHAWAR, June 17: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday granted bail to a former assistant collector customs Karachi, Rana Mazhar Ali, accused of misusing his authority.

The bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai accepted a writ petition filed by the accused and directed that he should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs1 million each.

Rana Mazhar Ali was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau on Dec 3, 2003. He was accused of misusing his authority and thereby causing a loss of Rs300 million to the government exchequer when he was principal appraiser Customs Department at Karachi.

It was NAB's case that the accused facilitated the disappearance of 33 consignments that went missing in 1994-95, imported by Hayat Industries, Gadoon Amazai, whose managing director Seth Nisar is principal accused in the case. Mr Nisar has already been released on bail on medical grounds by the high court.

Advocate Mohammad Ali and Barrister Syed Mudasser Ameer appeared for the petitioner and argued that the petitioner was accused of not sending bill of entries pertaining to the 33 consignments to Peshawar, which at the most amounted to lapse of procedure and not to the misuse of authority.

The counsel contended that under the Customs General Order No 10, the petitioner was not the responsible officer. They stated that the consignments were transported through Safe Transportation Scheme under which the bill of entries reached Peshawar and tax on raw material was collected at Gadoon.

The counsel argued that against the bill of entries indemnity bonds were furnished by the party, which were still intact and could be encashed by the customs department. They asked why the customs department had not been encashing those bank guarantees.

The bank asked the state's counsel whether the said bonds were intact. The counsel replied in affirmative. The bench asked why those guarantees had not been encashed. They added that the petitioner was arrested in Dec last and the reference was filed with a delay of more than five months.

Meanwhile, the bench also accepted petition of an upper division clerk Zubair Khan, who is co-accused in the same reference. He was granted bail on condition of furnishing two sureties of Rs5,00,000.