PESHAWAR: A special anti-corruption court on Friday rejected the pre-arrest bail petitions of two former National Database and Registration Authority officials in a case about their alleged facilitation of the issuance of Pakistani computerised national identity card to the National Geographic famed ‘Afghan girl’, Sharbat Gula.

When judge Farah Jamshed Khan pronounced the order, both the petitioners, including Mohsin Ehsan and Palwasha Afridi, were not present in the courtroom.

The court directed the Federal Investigation Agency to arrest both and produce before it.

One of the petitioners, Mohsin Ehsan, currently serving in the Federal Board of Revenue Peshawar offices, had produced a medical certificate claiming that his leg was fractured and therefore, he was admitted to hospital, whereas the other had claimed that her infant daughter was unwell and therefore, she couldn’t appear before the court.

An official said petitioner Mohisn Ehsan, who was earlier serving as the assistant director in the Nadra, was later on taken into custody by the FIA from a local hospital.

On Oct 20, the FIA had registered a case against three former Nadra employees for allegedly issuing CNICs to Ms Gula and two other Afghans shown as her sons.

The FIR says after completion of inquiry number 4/2015 and checking of Nadra records it has been established that three employees of Nadra Peshawar office identified as Palwasha Afridi, Mohsin Ehsan and Emad fraudulently issued Pakistani identity cards to Afghan nationals Sharbat Gula, Wali Khan and Rauf Khan.

They were charged under sections 409, 419, 420, 468, 471 and 109 of Pakistan Panel Code, Section 5(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, and Section 30 of Nadra Ordinance.

On Wednesday, the counsel for petitioners argued they were falsely implicated in the case.

They said Ms Gula was already issued manual identity card on the basis of which she was issued the CNIC.

The counsel added that the petitioners could not be held responsible for the issuance of the said card.

They said proper procedure was not followed while registering the case as under the Nadra Act, the case could only be registered on basis of a complaint.

The counsel said in the case, the FIA had acted on its own without any complaint by any of the officials.

On Nov 16, the Peshawar High Court had also dismissed a writ petition filed by Ms Afridi, who is a former deputy assistant director in Nadra and presently under suspension, seeking quashing of the case against her.

The special court had earlier convicted Ms Gula on Nov 4 and had sentenced her to undergo 15 days’ imprisonment with fine of Rs 110,000. The court also ordered her deportation after completion of her sentence.

Ms Gula, who was arrested by FIA on Oct 26, was deported to Afghanistan in the wee hours of Nov 9.

She was accorded official welcome in Afghanistan. Afterwards, Afghan President Dr Ashraf Ghani also met her.

Published in Dawn November 19th, 2016