PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench on Friday confirmed the pre-arrest bail of a former employee of the National Database and Registration Authority suspected of facilitating the issuance of Pakistani Computerised National Identity Card to the National Geographic magazine’s famed ‘Afghan Girl’, Sharbat Gula.

Justice Yahya Afridi pronounced the order after the lawyer for suspect and former Nadra assistant deputy director Palwasha Afridi and state prosecutor completed arguments.

On Nov 18, a special anti-corruption court had rejected the pre-arrest bail petition of Ms Afridi.

However, she wasn’t arrested as she was not present in the courtroom when the order was pronounced. She filed a petition in the high court thereafter.

Last month, the court had granted the interim pre-arrest bail to the petitioner on the condition of furnishing two surety bonds valuing Rs200,000 each.

On Oct 20, the Federal Investigation Agency had registered a case against three former Nadra employees, including the petitioner, for allegedly issuing CNICs to Ms Gula and two more Afghan nationals shown as her sons.

The FIR says after completion of inquiry and checking of Nadra records it has been established that three Nadra Peshawar employees including Palwasha Afridi, Mohsin Ehsan and Emad fraudulently issued Pakistani CNICs to Afghan nationals, including Sharbat Gula, Wali Khan and Rauf Khan.

They were charged under sections 409, 419, 420, 468, 471 and 109 of Pakistan Panel Code, Section 5(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, and Section 30 of the Nadra Ordinance.

Danish Khan Afridi, lawyer for the petitioner, said she was falsely implicated in the case as she had no concern with the issuance of CNIC to Sharbat Gula.

He said his client was not the chief of that Nadra registration centre in Hayatabad from where the CNIC was issued to Ms Gula.

The lawyer said the Nadra data form clearly showed the time and date of the filing of application and signature of the centre chief on it.

He said the petitioner deserved the bail confirmation as she had a suckling baby with no one else to take care of her and that she belonged to a respectable family and therefore, there was no possibility of her becoming an absconder.

Also, the bench adjourned the hearing into bail petitions of two other suspects in the case, including Mohsin Ehsan and Emad Khan, both former Nadra employees.

While Mohsin Ehsan was arrested after the rejection of his pre-arrest bail petition by the special court on Nov 18, Emad was arrested by the FIA before that.

Their bail petitions were also dismissed by the special court on Nov 29 prompting them to file petitions with the high court.

The bench fixed Dec 13 for next hearing into the bail petitions.

The petitioners have claimed that Ms Gula was already issued manual identity card and on the basis of said card she was issued the CNIC.

They added that the petitioners could not be held responsible for the issuance of the said card.

The petitioners said they had followed the standard operating procedure for issuance of the CNIC and had not deviated from the set procedure.

The special court had convicted Ms Gula on Nov 4 and sentenced her to 15 days imprisonment with Rs110,000 fine.

It had also ordered her deportation after completion of sentence.

Ms Gula, who was arrested by the FIA on Oct 26, was deported to Afghanistan in the wee hours of Nov 9.

She was given official welcome in Kabul with Afghan president Dr Ashraf Ghani holding a meeting with her.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2016