PESHAWAR, March 26: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench on Monday granted 'transit bail' to provincial Higher Education Minister Qazi Mohammad Asad in a murder case.

Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan directed the minister to furnish two surety bonds valuing Rs50,000 each for it and appear before the trial court in Haripur district on April 9.

The FIR of the case was registered by Haripur police on March 19.

According to complainant Zaheer Gul, when his brother, Abdul Majeed, entered a shop in the main bazaar of Haripur, the minister's gunman, Yamin, and two others opened fire at him killing him instantly.

He alleged that the minister had been supporting the alleged killers since and that Yamin was also nominated in the murder of his younger brother.

The complainant claimed that five persons of his family had already been killed over the enmity.

Mr Qazi Mohammad is charged with abetment in the case.

Due to a strike by lawyers, the petitioner's counsel, Qazi Mohammad Anwar, couldn't turn up. Mr Qazi Asad appeared in person. He contended that he was falsely implicated in the case.

The petitioner had filed the petition for pre-arrest bail but the bench considered it appropriate to grant him transit bail with the direction to appear before the relevant trial court in Haripur.