PESHAWAR, Feb 11: The Peshawar High Court here on Monday granted bail to two officials of the regional passport office accused of preparing passports without lamination of the photographs.

A single bench comprising Justice Ijaz Afzal directed the two applicants — an assistant director, Mian Aurangzeb Khan and a sweeper, Yousaf Masih — to furnish two sureties each of Rs5,00,000.

The accused were arrested by the FIA on Jan 22 after an FIR was registered against them by the director general of the Immigration and Passport Department, Islamabad. The director general had sent a letter on Jan 18 to the director general of the FIA on the basis of which the FIR was registered.

The complainant had claimed that two passports issued from Peshawar office were received by him bearing number KA 417592 and KA 518236, which were without lamination of the photographs. He termed this act a security risk, stating that such passports could be misused by the terrorist by substituting photographs in it.

He alleged that the said act was done for monetary gains in connivance with the officials of Peshawar regional office. He also alleged that an organized gang outside the regional office was also involved in this racket.

Advocate Qazi Muhammad Anwer appeared for the applicants and argued that there was not a single evidence against them. He contended that the claims made by the complainant in the FIR were based on flimsy grounds which got nothing to do with the accused.

Mr Anwer argued that the allegation of the investigation agency that two passports were issued by the accused, Mr Aurangzeb, without lamination of photographs was not correct. He contended that the said two passports were not carrying signatures of the accused-applicant thus that illegality could not be attributed to him.

He pointed out that the applicant, Mr Aurangzeb, was victimized by the officials in Islamabad as he had appeared in a writ petition pertaining to seniority of the officers of Passport Department before the high court. He added that he had recorded a statement before the high court on the basis of which a division bench had directed the department to convene meeting of the promotion committee within three months. Due to that statement the high ups were annoyed with him.

The deputy attorney general, Hamid Farooq Durrani, appeared for the FIA and argued that after an inquiry the accused were charged in the instant case.