A high-profile scam of alleged embezzlement in procurement of weapons for the police department continues to be in the limelight as different cases related to it are pending before the Peshawar High Court. Recently, the high court restrained the accountability court from indictment of three high ranking police officers in the same case. Similarly, the court has to decide writ petitions of three other officers challenging the issuance of their arrest warrants by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after the accountability court concerned earlier declined to summon them in the case.

The prime accused in the case, Malik Naveed Khan, a former provincial police officer of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who was arrested in 2013, has also been trying his luck once again in the high court seeking his release on bail on different grounds including health as well as technical. Last year his petition seeking bail on merit was dismissed by the court.

On Oct 19, 2016, a bench of the high court provided interim relief to DIG (deputy inspector general) of police Sadiq Kamal Orakzai and stopped the accountability court from farming of charges against him in the instant case. Similarly, on Oct 20 the court granted identical relief to two other DIGs, Dr Muhammad Suleman and Kashif Alam, and directed the accountability court not to indict them in the case till further order.

These three petitioners have challenged orders of the accountability/trial court of rejecting their respective applications in which they had requested that they should be discharged of the charges against them instead of their indictment. The court has now to decide their pleas.

In the instant case, Malik Naveed, who had retired in Aug 2010, and a budget officer of police department, Javed Khan, have been facing trial. They were indicted on July 7, 2015, for receiving kickbacks from Arshid Majeed, a private contractor who turned approver in the case, and inflicting a loss of Rs2031.25 million during procurement of weapons and equipment for the police department in 2009-10. They had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

During last couple of years this high-profile case had taken interesting twists and turns. While Malik Naveed was arrested in Nov 2013, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had filed a reference against 10 persons in Mar 2014. Due to different reasons the charges could not be framed for over a year.

Arshid Majeed, a private contractor known for supplying different items to the police department, is the central character of this scam. He was arrested by NAB on Feb 21, 2013, but was released on bail by the high court after he agreed to voluntarily return Rs102 million. NAB claims that Arshid Majeed has turned approver in the case.

A statement of Arshid Majeed recorded before a judicial magistrate on May 25, 2013, is considered as an important evidence in the case. In that statement, he had made allegations regarding payments to the tune of over Rs1 billion to several people, including Malik Naveed, as kickbacks for awarding lucrative contracts and cover-up of the issue.

Arshid Majeed had alleged that he had paid Rs360 million to the ex-IGP Mr Naveed in three installments and had also purchased nine air-conditioning units for his personal residence. He had further alleged that he had paid about Rs420 million in cash to Javed Khan for the assistance in preparation of tender document, using influence in approving the bids, arranging funds and making advance payments.

He also alleged that he was told by Malik Naveed that he (Arshid) had also to pay an amount of Rs200 million to one Amir Ghazan, brother of ex-chief minister Amir Haider Hoti. He claimed that the said amount was paid through Ghazan’s brother-in-law Raza Ali. Subsequently, an accountability court on May 16, 2015, had acquitted Ghazan, who had been behind the bars since his arrest in Apr 2014. The accused Raza Ali had entered into plea bargain with the NAB on condition of paying Rs224.25 million to the bureau. He had claimed that the amount received by him was not paid to Ghazan.

The 10 persons charged in the reference by NAB are: Malik Naveed, Javed Khan, Amir Ghazan Khan (later on acquitted), Raza Ali (set free after plea bargain), ex-commandant of Frontier Constabulary, Abdul Majeed Marwat, ex-additional IGP, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (operations) Abdul Latif Gandapur, DIG Central Police Officer Sajid Ali Khan, the then DIG Headquarters, Peshawar Mohammad Suleman, the then AIG (establishment) at CPO, Peshawar Kashif Alam and the then DIG (telecommunication) Sadiq Kamal Orakzai.

Except Malik Naveed and Javed Khan, the accountability court had decided not to summon the other six police officers mentioned in the reference observing that the roles of those officials were not clearly spelled out in the reference.

Initially, when the accountability court declined to summon the said six officers NAB filed a writ petition before the high court, which was dismissed on Sept 11, 2014. The high court observed that an application of the NAB had already been pending before accountability court in that regard. The accountability court stuck to its earlier order and dismissed the said application on Nov 22, 2014. The bureau again filed a writ petition before the high court which was subsequently dismissed on Mar 26, 2015.

The issue continued to linger on as the NAB last year issued arrest warrants of the said six officers, who challenged the same before the high court. On June 15, 2016, the high court disposed of petitions of three of the officers named Muhammad Suleman, Kashif Alam and Sadiq Kamal as the NAB withdrew their arrest warrants on the ground that they were willing to appear before an accountability court to face trial, which had already been in progress against Malik Naveed and Javed.

However, when the said three officers approached the accountability court and filed applications requesting the court to absolve them of the charges the trial court turned down those applications and instead decided to indict them. They have now challenged those orders of the trial court.

The writ petitions of the remaining three officers challenging the issuance of their arrest warrants by NAB have been pending before the high court.

A legal expert dealing with accountability cases said that looking at these legal developments it appeared that there was no possibility of conclusion of the trial in the near future. It is now up to the high court to decide whether to grant bail to Malik Naveed, who has been behind the bars for around three years, or to turn down his plea.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2016