PESHAWAR, Nov 3: Former provincial minister Iftikhar Mohmand, and two others were released by an accountability court here on Saturday after they agreed to pay Rs8 million to the National Accountability Bureau.

The accountability court, presided over by Syed Yahya Zahid Gillani, was informed by a NAB prosecutor that the NAB chairman had accepted plea-bargain of the three accused - Iftikhar Mohmand, Wakeel Shah, a former deputy commissioner of Mardan and Feroz Khan, a patwari.

The fourth co-accused, Sher Azam, an assistant commissioner, would continue to face trial, the court ruled.

Iftikhar Mohmand, who was an Awami National Party’s member of the provincial assembly when the assembly was dissolved by the present regime, was facing trial in two references.

In one of the references he was accused of transferring government’s land in the name of his two sons when he was a provincial minister.

In the second reference, he was charged with masterminding a plan to get his land purchased by the government for establishing a polytechnic institution on an exorbitant price much above the market rate.

The Regional Accountability Bureau claimed that he had inflicted loss to the national exchequer through the said two acts, which were crimes under section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999.

The accused, Mr Mohmand, had denied both the charges and decided to stand trial. However, at the same time he had given an application for plea-bargain, which was finally accepted by the NAB chief.

The RAB had claimed that the accused, Mr Mohmand, carried out his acts in connivance with three other co-accused. A patwari, Purdil Khan was also initially charged with Mr Mohmand, but later he turned approver against him.

DEMO HELD: The Hizb-ul-Tahrir has alleged that the Inter Services Intelligence has taken away one of its leaders and kept him at an undisclosed place.