PESHAWAR, April 8: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday disposed of 16 identical writ petitions filed by the revenue department employees against their suspension.

However, the court accepted their request vis-a-vis the recovery of fine and set aside the government’s order of recovering different amounts from them.

The National Accountability Bureau had charged the petitioners with inflicting a loss of hundreds of thousands of rupees to the exchequer by registering mutations of properties during a ban imposed by the provincial government. NAB said the petitioners had ignored the ban imposed on the registration of mutations of properties on July 1, 1994.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Shahjehan Khan, turned down the petitioners’ request to set aside their suspension and observed that they should first avail of the departmental remedy available to them.

The bench observed that already a reference had been filed against the petitioners by NAB, therefore the government could not issue notices to the petitioners for the recovery of the amount.

Petitioner Momin Gul and 15 others were issued notices for recovery of about Rs600,000 each by the senior member of the Board of Revenue. Also, their services had been suspended.

Appearing for the petitioners, Advocate Qazi Mohammad Anwer argued that the government’s order was against the law. He said the government had no powers to penalize the petitioners. He said a proper procedure was not adopted for placing the petitioners under suspension.

The deputy prosecutor-general of NAB, Mian Fasihul Mulk, informed the court that a reference had already been filed against petitioners.

The bench observed that it was now up to the court to decide whether the petitioners had inflicted a loss to the exchequer or not. It said the BoR member could not penalize the petitioners when a reference was pending against them before the accountability court.