PESHAWAR: Setting aside the conviction of a former chairman of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dera Ismail Khan, Noor Mohammad, by an accountability court, the Peshawar High Court has acquitted him in a case regarding the misuse of authority for the purchase of land at an exorbitant rate.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Abdul Shakoor accepted a criminal appeal filed by Mr Noor ruling that the charge of the misuse of authority against the appellant couldn’t be proved as the records showed that no personal gain was involved in the matter.

It observed that the alleged beneficiary of the land deal had returned and deposited the amount received on account of purchase of the disputed land for the construction of the DI Khan BISE building and all that happened even before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) authorised an inquiry against the appellant.

The bench observed that the amount in question was returned with interest by the alleged beneficiary, who was the landowner, suggesting that the amount received was with him, and if the appellant had any personal gain or benefit and had received it, then why the landowner was obliged to voluntarily return it with interest.

An accountability court had convicted the appellant on Oct 10, 2018, and sentenced him to two years imprisonment for misusing authority.

PHC sets aside his conviction by accountability court

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

Omer Farooq Adam and Hamid Ali, lawyers for the appellant, contended that the section of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, under which their client was charged and convicted, should show that the authority was misused to gain any benefit.

They said in order to charge a government official, it was the duty of the prosecution to bring it on record through cogent evidence that there was a ‘gain’ by the said officer, any benefit or favour for himself or any other person.

The counsel added that the entire record and evidence were silent on what gain their client had achieved through the land deal.

They added that even before the start of the inquiry, the landowner had returned the money, which he had received for selling the land.

The NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had alleged that a loss was caused to the exchequer by the transfer of the government’s money to the landowner and its deposit in his bank account without the land’s acquisition.

It alleged that the appellant 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 Rs316,728 per kanal, the appellant had purchased it at the rate of Rs1.2 million per kanal and thus, causing a loss of Rs5.29 million to the exchequer.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2019