PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has granted bail to the wife of the prime accused in a high-profile case involving the alleged embezzlement of over Rs37 billion funds from the Upper Kohistan district accounts office.

However, the bail pleas of four co-accused in the case were rejected.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Farah Jamshed accepted the bail petition of Gul Fareen Jadoon, wife of the main accused, Qaiser Iqbal, on condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs5 million each.

It pronounced a short order and will issue a detailed order later.

Those denied bail included former district accounts officer in Upper Kohistan Shafiqur Rehman, member of the relevant audit committee Rediullah, senior auditor Alamzeb and owner of a construction company Fazal Raheem.

PHC rejects bail pleas of four other accused

Petitioner Jadoon and her husband, Qaiser Iqbal, a head clerk in the communication and works department, were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Oct 2025. They remained in the bureau’s custody for 14 days before being sent to prison by an accountability courton judicial remand.

Lawyers Syed Abid Shah and Naveed Ahmad Khan appeared for the petitioner Ms Jadoon and contended that she was a law abiding citizen and a teacher by profession, having an unblemished service record and no previous involvement in any criminal case whatsoever.

They said that the petitioner, a house wife and mother of three minor children, had wrongly been implicated in the instant case based solely on her marital relationship with her husband, Qaiser Iqbal, who was the principal accused in the matter.

The counsel said that the alleged transactions which formed the basis for her arrest were centered around certain bank transactions with one Faheem Moon, a nephew of the petitioner. They added that the transactions, as cited by the prosecution, didn’t exceed a total value of five million rupees.

Despite the relatively small amount involved, the lawyers said the prosecution had made these transactions the sole nexus for her arrest.

Advocate Abid Shah further argued that the mere fact of financial transactions between his client and the co-accused, Faheem Moon, didn’t in itself establish any criminal intent and were insufficient to justify the arrest of the petitioner, particularly given the lack of further incriminating evidence.

He contended that his client had never participated in any business, financial, commercial or administrative activity forming part of the allegations under inquiry.

The lawyer also referred to different superior court judgements in support of his contention.

A special prosecutor appeared for the NAB and said that petitioner Ms Jadoon, in active connivance with her husband and other benamidars, facilitated the concealment of crime proceeds through massive cash withdrawals from bank accounts.

He said that the petitioner knowingly purchased valuable assets in her name, fully aware that these were grossly disproportionate to her and her husband’s legitimate source of income, which stem solely from modest salaries as a teacher and a clerk.

The special prosecutor pointed out that during the search of her residence, gold, foreign currency and cash amounting to over Rs95.735 million, luxury vehicles and title documents of expensive properties worth billions of rupees were recovered, demonstrating her direct involvement in concealing illicit assets.

Meanwhile, special prosecutor Arbab Kaleemullah argued on the bail petitions of the other four accused, saying there is incontrovertible evidence against them clearly showing their involvement in the scam.

About Shafiqur Rehman, he said that being the then district accounts officer in Upper Kohistan, he had abused his authority to endorse fraudulent cheques without proper verification, exploiting weaknesses in the system to facilitate unauthorised withdrawal of huge sums from the said head of account G-10113.

He argued that Rehman joined hands and colluded with the communication and works department officials, contractors and bank officials in the embezzlement of the amount on the basis of smooth execution of illicit transactions by manipulating financial records, bypass the oversight mechanisms and coordinated with the co-accused to misappropriate public funds.

The NAB has claimed that Qaiser Iqbal, along with other accused, was involved in the illegal withdrawal and misappropriation of over Rs37 billion from the contractors security deposit head of an account, G-10113.

It added that it had started an inquiry and during probe it revealed that officials of the C&W department, Upper Kohistan, in connivance with officials of district accounts office, Upper Kohistan, and NBP branch there, had misappropriated funds from different projects through bogus withdrawal of funds from the national treasury in the name of several contractors, who had not executed any civil work.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2026