PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has granted bail to a former senior auditor of the accountant general’s office charged with facilitating the prime accused in a high-profile case involving the alleged embezzlement of over Rs37 billion funds in the Upper Kohistan district accounts office.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Inamullah Khan accepted a petition filed by former senior auditor Fazal Hussain on condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs2 millions each. The detailed order will be released later.

The accused was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on July 10, 2025. His bail plea was rejected by an accountability court on Sept 2, 2025.

Lawuer Ashfaq Daudzai appeared for the petitioner and contended that the NAB had claimed that the petitioner at the relevant time held an official position and was a member of an inquiry conducted by the audit department.

He was held by NAB over alleged embezzlement of over Rs37bn funds

He said that the bureau alleged that the petitioner failed to disclose information to the department and in return received kickbacks from the principal accused, Qaiser Iqbal.

He said that the bureau further alleged that the payments from the principal accused were deposited into the bank account of the petitioner’s son, Muzzamil Khan.

The counsel argued that the payment deposited in the said account didn’t establish the petitioner’s involvement in respect of the said transaction.

He contended that no concrete evidence was available on the file to prima facie prove the link of petitioner with the offence.

He added that as for the role of his client in the offence, it was case of further inquiry.

The NAB’s prosecution team contended that as per record, the petitioner had been nominated as a member of the committee constituted by AG office on Jan 23, 2023, to collect data of deposit amount under head G-10113.

It said that the petitioner as a member of the said committee, in connivance with other co-accused, detected glaring irregularities and evidence of misappropriation of government funds in Upper Kohistan district under the said head.

The team added that the petitioner intentionally and willfully concealed his findings through fake entries, which could have resulted in prevention of further fraudulent withdrawals from public exchequer.

The prosecutors contended that the role of the petitioner enabled the other accused to continue the commission of the offence at an exponential loss to public exchequer.

They said that out of around Rs37 billion funds embezzled in the case, over Rs22 billion was illegally withdrawn after the formation of the said committee in Jan 2023, wherein the petitioner was an active member.

The prosecutors said that during course of inquiry, a house search was conducted, which led to the recovery of large quantity of gold, cash and title documents of expensive immovable properties, indicating his direct link to the proceeds of the crime.

The NAB, which has so far arrested over 40 accused in the case, insisted that Qaiser Iqbal, a former head clerk in the communication and works department, 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, June 20th, 2026