PESHAWAR, June 7: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court here on Friday stayed the recovery of excise duty imposed on marble by the district revenue officer (DRO) in Buner District.

The bench, comprising Justice Talat Qayyum Qureshi and Justice Ijazul Hassan, admitted a petition filed by about 40 contractors for regular hearing and directed the respondents to file comments.

Maazullah Barkandi advocate appeared for Mir Ghani and other petitioners and contended that the DRO order was illegal and against the law.

He contended that the Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) under which excise duty was imposed by the DRO had not been extended to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) and as Buner was a part of PATA, therefore, it was exempted from imposition of excise duty.

He quoted Article 247 of the Constitution, and argued that unless the governor of the province, with the approval of the president, issued directives for extension of a law or SRO, no law was applicable to Provincially Administered Tribal Areas.

Bail Granted: An Assistant Director (finance) of the FATA Development Corporation, Yar Khan, accused of embezzlement of funds, was allowed bail by a single bench of the Peshawar High Court on Friday.

The accused was charged along with another official, Roshan Khattak, of misappropriating Rs11.8 million in the funds of FATA DC.

The co-accused has been absconding, whereas the accused-applicant was arrested by the FIA after registration of an FIR on April 11, 2002.

The bench, comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed, directed that the accused-applicant should be released after furnishing four sureties of Rs2 million each.