PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to seek its response on a bail plea of former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti’s brother, Amir Ghazan Khan, in a case about the alleged embezzlement in procurement of weapons for police.

A bench comprising Justice Qaisar Rasheed and Justice Musarrat Hilali issued the notice after preliminary hearing into the petition.

It also ordered the fixing of the case within a fortnight.

Mr Ghazan was arrested by the NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on April 15 after the high court denied him the pre-arrest bail in the case.

The NAB has alleged that an approver in the case, Arshad Majeed, a private contractor, had claimed that he had paid Rs195 million to Ghazan through his front man, Raza Ali, who was also arrested in the case.

It added that in return of the payment, he had asked Arshad Majeed to increase the price of bulletproof jackets, which he was providing to the police, from the already approved price.

The NAB claimed that over Rs7 billion was released by the provincial government for procurement of weapons, vehicles and equipment for countering terrorism in the province.

A formal reference of Rs2.03 billion has already been filed against 10 of the suspects including a former provincial police officer Malik Naveed, Mr Ghazan, Mr Raza and seven other police officials.

Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah, lawyer for the petitioner, said merely on the statement of a so-called approver, his client could not be imprisoned.

He said the status of Arshad Majeed had yet to be cleared as the accountability court had earlier observed that his case was not that of an approver and instead, it was a case of voluntary return of money.

The lawyer said there was no evidence on record to corroborate the statement of Arshad Majeed.

He said the petitioner was falsely implicated in the case.

The lawyer said the petitioner was doing his business in UAE for the last many years and got nothing to do with the affairs of the police department.

Arshad Majeed, a central character of the multi-billion rupees scam, was released on bail on the high court orders after he agreed to voluntarily return Rs102 million.

He is not charged in the reference as the NAB insisted he had turned approver.

Published in Dawn, July 25th , 2014