Peshawar court confirms bail of three PTI ex-MPAs, 46 others in ‘illegal’ appointments case
PESHAWAR: A special anti-corruption court here on Tuesday confirmed pre-arrest bail to 49 suspects including three former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmakers from Swat in a case of alleged illegal appointments of 66 class-IV employees in a public sector hospital.
The senior special judge, Babar Ali Khan, accepted 20 petitions filed by the suspects including that of two former provincial ministers Amjid Ali and Muhibullah, and ex-MPA Azizullah Gran and 46 of the appointed employees.
The judge ruled that no doubt that some of the accused-petitioners were directly charged in the FIR but no specific role whatsoever had been assigned to either one of them.
The court observed that if any of the political members of the treasury had made any recommendation for the purpose of illegal appointment of class IV employees by taking illegal gratification etc, the prosecution could have placed on file some evidence in this regard.
“Similarly, if the beneficiaries who were appointed on the posts in question and had paid illegal gratification, the ACE (anti-corruption establishment) authorities were duly bound to have annexed any solid piece of evidence,” the court ruled.
The court further observed that the prosecution had also failed to place on record the rules and regulations including the practice of appointment of class-IV employees, which was the first and foremost ingredient for such appointments and without them the court remained in dark that whether the illegality, irregularity had been committed or otherwise.
The court also pointed out that the complaint moved by the complainant was on June 23, 2017, and the FIR had been registered on May 10, 2023, which clearly showed that there was inordinate delay of six years from the date of reporting the matter and registration of the case, which had not been explained by the prosecution rather the same created doubts in the prudent mind relating to genuineness of the offence.
The FIR was registered by the ACE on complaint of one Mohammad Tahir, wherein he had alleged that 66 number of class-IV vacancies were filled in the Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital Swat by the health department officials after the said vacancies were distributed among the deputy commissioner Swat, MNAs and MPAs. He had levelled charges of corruption in the said appointments.
The FIR provided list of accused persons including the then MNAs, MPAs from Swat including Muhibullah, Azizullah Gran, Amjid Ali, Fazal Hakeem, Nadia Sher, etc.
The ACE had charged the accused persons of inflicting loss of Rs12.09 million to the exchequer on account of salaries of the said appointed persons.
Meanwhile, the court adjourned hearing of bail petition of former minister of state Ali Mohammad Khan to June 15 (Thursday) in a case of carrying out alleged illegal appointments in the fisheries department.
When the court took up for hearing the petition, it was informed that the ACE had not produced record of the case, which was registered by the ACE police station Mardan.
The petitioner has repeatedly been re-arrested after getting relief from different courts in multiple cases.
The present case was registered on May 10 and apart from Mr Khan several other former law makers of the PTI from Mardan have been charged.
The said case pertained to certain appointments in the fisheries department, which the ACE claimed were irregular and had inflicted a loss of Rs2.35 million to the exchequer.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2023