PESHAWAR: An accountability court here on Saturday sentenced former chairman of the Dera Ismail Khan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Noor Mohammad to two years imprisonment after convicting him of misusing authority for the purchase of land at exorbitant rates.

Judge Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan pronounced that the prosecution had proved the charge against the accused, while the evidence on record confirmed misuse of powers by him on the matter.

The court granted him the benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure under which his period of detention prior to his conviction will be counted in his prison term.

Accountability court convicts Noor Mohammad in land purchase case

Noor Mohammad was arrested in 2014 but was released on bail granted by the Peshawar High Court.

The National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has claimed that a loss was caused to the exchequer through the transfer of the government money to the landowner and keeping it in his bank account without the acquisition of the land.

Few years ago, the NAB had also recovered Rs72 million from the landowner through voluntary return agreement under Section 25 of National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

The inquiry and subsequent investigation into the case revealed that the convict in connivance with the landowner had purchased an unsuitable land in violation of the Land Acquisition Act, 1984, at the exorbitant rate of Rs72 million and thus, causing a huge loss to the exchequer.

The NAB claimed that while the market value of the land was Rs300,000 per kanal, the convict had purchased it at the rate of Rs1.2 million per kanal.

It added that the land was never transferred or mutated in the name of DIK BISE even after purchase for mala fide intentions.

NAB prosecutor Mohammad Riaz Khan said the charge of misuse of authority, an offence under the NAB law, were proved against Noor Mohammad.

JUDGMENT RESERVED: The accountability court reserved judgment until Oct 27 on a reference filed against former provincial minister Habibullah Khan Kundi over the purchase of land for the Peshawar Ring Road allegedly at exorbitant rates.

The accused, who remained the provincial housing and physical planning minister from 1994 to 1996, was also declared a proclaimed offender.

He had absconded in the case in early 2000 when the trial was conducted against several other accused, including former chief minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao.Qazi Mohammad Anwar, lawyer for the accused, claimed that there existed evidence against his client and wondered how his client could be convicted when all other accused had been acquitted.

He said the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance, 2007, led to the quashing of the case but it was revived when the Supreme Court struck down the NRO in 2009 declaring it unconstitutional.

The lawyer said the accountability court later acquitted Mr Kundi by accepting his application under Section 265-K of the Code of Criminal Procedure under which the trial court was empowered to acquit an accused before the conclusion of the trial.

He however said an appeal of the NAB against the acquittal was accepted by the high court, which remanded the case back to the trial court for hearing.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2018