PESHAWAR: Special judge (anti-corruption) Ikhtiar Khan has extended until Jan 14 the interim pre-arrest bail of two assistant commissioners facing the charge of illegal distribution of Rs21 million forest royalty in Upper Dir district.

The court adjourned the proceedings asking the Anti-Corruption Establishment to produce records of the case before the next hearing.

It ruled that the interim pre-arrest bail granted last month to ACs Abdul Wali and Mohammad Farooq should continue until next hearing.

When the court took up petitions of the two for extension in pre-arrest bail, the special prosecutor said the records of the case hadn’t been produced so far.

The ACE has charged the two ACs and some forest contractors with illegally distributing royalty among few people instead of the rights holders in violation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protected Forests Management Rules, 2005.

Court asks ACE to produce records

In separate petitions, the two officers have claimed innocence saying they have distributed the money in accordance with the relevant procedure in vogue in the area since long.

Early last year, the petitioners had approached the special court and got interim pre-arrest bail. However, they later withdrew petitions on technical grounds as under the ACE Rules, 1999, they could not be arrested without permission of the chief secretary and at that time, that permission was not given to the ACE.

In its order announced regarding the earlier petitions of the two officers on Apr 4, 2018, the special judge had observed that during the course of arguments for disposal of their petitions, it came to fore that both petitioners were public servants in BPS-17 and in that case, permission for their arrest had not so far been granted by the competent authority i.e. the chief secretary of the province as envisaged by Clause (b) of Sub-Rule 4 of Rule 4 of the ACE Rules, 1999.

While allowing the withdrawal of the earlier petitions the special judge had granted them relief by directing the ACE to provide fair opportunity to the two officers to again approach the court for pre-arrest bail in case the competent authority grants permission for their arrest.

On Dec 4, 2018, the Establishment Department had sent a letter to the ACE’s director informing him that the competent authority (chief secretary) has given permission for arresting the two officers.

Following that letter the two officers approached the special court again seeking pre-arrest bail.

On the complaints filed by the inhabitants of Kalkot area in Upper Dir, the KP Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had conducted an inquiry and subsequently registered an FIR on Nov 28, 2017, at ACE Police Station Upper Dir against seven individuals including the two ACs.

The persons charged in the FIR include: the ACs Abdul Wali Khan and Mohammad Farooq and five of the individuals named Ziarat Gul, Abdur Rasheed, Altaf Khan, Sheerinzada and Mohammad Shafiq.

The five suspects charged in the case are accused of receiving forest royalty on behest of large number of royalty rights holders claiming that they were attorney holders on behalf of the rights holders also called as royalty concessionists.

The claim was rejected by the residents of the area, who accused them of royalty denial.

After the case was registered initially one of the suspects Ziarat Gul was arrested. His bail was initially rejected by the special judge anti-corruption but was subsequently granted bail by the Peshawar High Court Swat Bench (Darul Qaza) on Mar 1, 2018.

Similarly, the four other accused, including Sheerinzada, Altaf Khan, Abdur Rasheed and Mohammad Shafiq, were granted pre-arrest bail by the special judge.

The ACE has challenged the pre-arrest bail of those four accused before the PHC, where those petitions would be heard on Feb 8.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2019