PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has rejected bail plea of a bank cashier-turned-contractor, one of the prime accused in an ongoing probe into alleged misappropriation of more than Rs30 billion in the district accounts office, Upper Kohistan.

A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal ruled that keeping in view the evidence on record, petitioner Mohammad Riaz didn’t deserve to be extended the concession of bail.

The petitioner’s counsel stated that his client had been behind bars for around five months and investigation in the case had not been completed. He said that the petitioner had also submitted an application for plea bargain to National Accountability Bureau (NAB), but so far the same had not been decided.

He contended that as the probe would take more time to complete, therefore, the petitioner may be set free on bail.

Petitioner has been behind bars for around five months

The special prosecutor of NAB, Arbab Kaleemullah, said that the accused-petitioner, Mohammad Riaz, had joined National Bank of Pakistan as cashier in 2006-07 and had resigned from service in the year 2021.

He said that during his tenure, he served in the branches of the bank in Pattan and Dassu. He stated that the accused had established some construction companies in the names of his six brothers and subsequently in his name after resignation.

He said that earlier an accountability court had also confirmed the order of NAB of freezing around 40 of moveable and immoveable properties of the accused and his benamidars.

He stated that the frozen properties included commercial plazas, commercial plots, a farm house, residences and shops mostly in Islamabad.

He claimed that in his plea bargain application, the petitioner had also agreed to pay an amount of Rs5 billion.

Justice Asadullah remarked in lighter vein that the petitioner should be thankful that he was not in China. The bench questioned from where a bank cashier accumulated billions of rupees.

Mr Kaleemullah argued that on credible information NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had started an inquiry and during preliminary probe it revealed that officials of communication and works department (C&W), Upper Kohsitan, in connivance with officials of district accounts office and NBP branch there, had misappropriated more than Rs30 billion from different projects through bogus withdrawal of funds from national treasury in the name of several contractors, who had not executed any civil work.

He stated that the district accounts office, Upper Kohistan, without carrying any verification of alleged work done by the said contractors, passed the cheques amounting to billions of rupees, which were deposited by the said contractors in their bank accounts.

He said that the said amounts were credited, the crime proceeds were layered in different bank accounts and subsequently integrated and shared by the suspects in agreed upon proportions including by purchase of properties in question and thereby caused loss to public exchequer.

The prosecutor stated that the petitioner and a head clerk of C&W in Kohistan, Qaiser Iqbal, some other officials and proprietors of the said companies in league with each other fraudulently submitted fake bills and got issued different cheques in favour of the said firms.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2025