PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday denied the bail to former divisional forest officer Musa Khan Baloch in a case of illegal assets, funds’ embezzlement and unlawful appointments.

The bail plea of Musa Khan, who is stated to be an associate of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, was rejected by a bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Ijaz Anwar.

The petitioner had claimed that he was implicated in a false case.

The NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had arrested him in Sept last year along with his alleged associate Mohammad Arsalan Aziz and foresters of Dera Ismail Khan Forest Division Mohammad Farooq and Qaiser Abbas Baloch and filed a corruption reference against them in Jan.

The accused, including Musa Khan, were indicted by an accountability court in Jan. They had pleaded not guilty to the offence.

Musa Khan was also chief of JUI-F Paharpur tehsil, DI Khan, while his son, Tariq Baloch, is the personal secretary of the party’s top leader.

A NAB prosecutor claimed that the money involved in the case totalled Rs56.03 million, which was about the assets of Musa Khan, his bank transactions and embezzlement of funds.

He said the investigation had established that Musa Khan had illegally appointed his son and nephew to the department and that he, in league with other accused, embezzled a huge amount of funds of the Sustainable Land Management Programme meant for the desertification and land degradation in the province.

The NAB prosecutor also insisted that the petitioner, who retired from the government service in 2017, possessed Rs19.297 million assets, which were disproportionate to the known sources of his income.

He said the trial of the petitioner for corruption was under way.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2021