PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday granted interim pre-arrest bail to vice chancellor of Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU), Mardan, and three other officials in a case of alleged misappropriation of funds in procurement of Information Technology equipment for the university.

The bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani and Justice Lal Jan Khattak directed that the four petitioners including AWKU Vice-chancellor Dr Ehsan Ali, its registrar Arshur Rehman, Prof Zahoor Khan and concerned dean Dr Jehanzeb to furnish two sureties of Rs2 million each.

The bench also sought comments from the director general of National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the writ petition filed by the four officials challenging starting of investigation against them.

The executive board of NAB had in Dec 2016 authorised investigation against Dr Ehsan Ali and others. NAB suspected that the petitioners were allegedly involved in misappropriation of funds allocated in procurement of IT equipment, causing a loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer.

Two references have already been filed against the vice-chancellor and others before the accountability court wherein they have been charged with carrying out illegal appointments in the university.

Advocate Syed Arshid Ali appeared for the petitioners and contended that his clients had been serving against different posts in AWKU.

Seeks comments from NAB in petition filed by AWKU officials

He said that Dr Ehsan Ali was a scholar and academician of international fame and was a known archeologist.

He said that NAB started inquiries in relation to different issues pertaining to the university. He added that the petitioners had been cooperating with the bureau in all the inquiries and investigations.

The counsel said that the petitioners apprehend that they might be arrested in connection with an investigation related to purchase of equipment. He requested the bench to declare the said investigation as illegal and restrain NAB from arresting the petitioners.

Umer Farooq, a senior prosecutor of NAB, stated that so far no decision had been taken to arrest the petitioners in the instant case. He added that he would seek latest information in that regard from the officials concerned.

The bench observed that under Section 17-D of National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, if there were more than one references against an accused the same should be clubbed and heard jointly. The bench directed the prosecutor to also assist the court on the point as to why different references had been filed against the petitioners.

The bench directed that comments should be filed in the petition and the petitioners should not be arrested in the instant case.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2017