PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday granted interim bail to three people, including two officers of Child Protection and Welfare Commission, in a case about misuse of authority and corrupt practices.

Justice Qaisar Rasheed and Justice Roohul Amin Khan directed the three suspects, including chief child protection officer Dr Murad Ali Afridi, deputy chief child protection officer Ijaz Khan and owner of a rent-a-car agency Hashaam Khilji, to furnish two surety bonds valuing Rs5 million each for the bail.

They also ordered the clubbing of petitions against the arrest of the three with other petitions challenging the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Act 2014 for hearing next month.

The three were arrested on June 9 by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission.

PHC orders clubbing of petitions against arrests with those challenging Ehtesab Act

Syed Arshad Ali and Barrister Yaseen Raza appeared for Murad Ali, whereas advocates Sahibzada Asadullah and Sardar Ali Raza represented Ijaz Khan and Hashaam Khilji, respectively.

The lawyers said in different cases of people arrested by the Ehtesab commission, another high court bench headed by the chief justice had granted interim bails to those persons and decided to hear the questions regarding vires of the KPEC Act afterwards.

They said earlier, bails were granted on the ground that as suspects were sent to prison on judicial remand by the ehtesab judge and there was no provision of judicial remand in the KPEC Act, it would be appropriate to set them free on bail until the final decision on the petitions.

The lawyers said there was no provision in the Act regarding the applicability of the Code of Criminal procedure to the offences under the Act, so the three suspects were in illegal detention.

They said like other petitions in Ehtesab cases, the three suspects should be freed on interim bail, while their petitions should be heard with other petitions related to the matter.

Ehtesab commission deputy prosecutor general Zahid Aman said suspects shouldn’t be given bail as two of them were serving officials and they would tamper with the record if freed.

He said the suspects had opened four separate bank accounts without permission of the competent authority and that Hashaam Khilji was awarded contract of renting cars without tender.

The Ehtesab commission official claimed that the arrested men were involved in misappropriation of funds to the tune of millions of rupees.

He said although there was no specific provision regarding applicability of CrPC, in the definition section of the law, the CrPC was mentioned, which meant that the intention of the legislators was that it should be applied to offences under the act.

The lawyers for petitioners denied corruption charges against their clients saying the four accounts were opened for different donor projects like that of Unicef and Save the Children.

They said it was the requirement of donors that separate account should be opened for a specific project and that the accounts in question were regularly audited.

The lawyers said the rent-a-car contract was awarded to Hashaam Khilji, the lowest bidder, after its proper advertisement in newspapers and that the contract was approved by a committee and not an individual.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2015

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