Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has, at last granted bail to former minister for Mines and Minerals, Ziaullah Afridi on the ground that all co-accused in the case were already on bail.

The bail was granted on Tuesday against two surety bonds of rupees one million each to the politician, who became a Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) on Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket and went on to become provincial minister before being arrested by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtisaab Commission (KPEC) 16 months ago on charges of corruption and embezzlement of funds.

The charges against the former minister and other accused, Director General Mines and Mineral Department Dr Liaquat Ali, Khalid Yousaf included corruption and embezzlement of funds in the Chromate mines at Tangi, Charsadda district.

Other two accused who had successfully acquired bail were Mir Zaman for illegal appointments and Khan Pervez and Pervez for charges of illegal mining.

PHC bench headed by Justice Waqar Ahmad Sethi heard arguments from Shumail Ahmad Butt, the counsel for Ziaullah Afridi that his client was behind the bars for the last 16 months and during this period the KPEC failed to file a reference against him.

“The petitioner has been behind the bars for long whereas the non-filing of the reference means that trial has not yet started,” Shumail Butt argued before the bench.

He further said that similarly no reference was filed in the Tangi Chromate Mine case. He also pointed out the delay on part of the prosecution in producing the record before the court. “The prosecution is also responsible for the delayed provision of records of almost all requested adjournments,” he claimed.

Shumail Ahmad Butt told the bench that the his client Ziaullah Afridi was arrested on July 9, 2015 on the charges of patronizing the illegal mining of phosphate of Sahara Mineral Development in district Abbottabad. “The petitioner was charged for issuing transit challans to legalize the unlawful transportation of illegally excavated phosphate causing losses to provincial exchequer,” Butt argued.

However, after the second amendment in KPEC Act 2014 under its section 42 a person who was charged for committing multiple offences should be tried at one trial.

“A person accused of more than one offences of same nature committed during space of any number of years, from first to the last of such offences, may be charged with and tried at one trial for any number of such offences”, Shumail Btt read out the amended article of Act.

He also raised point of prosecution witnesses and stated that there were around 100 prosecution witnesses who were to be examined. He appealed the bench to release the petitioner on bail which was accepted and the bench ordered his release on bail through a short order.

Ziaullah Afridi was arrested by KPEC for alleged misappropriation of billions of rupees through illegal mining. The KPEC later registered two more cases against him for illegal mining in Charsadda and Abbottabad. Cases in illegal mining in Nowshera district and making unlawful appointments and transfers in his departments were also registered against him on a later stage.

Ziaullah Afridi had acquired bail from the PHC on August 24, 2015 but the KPEC objected that there were multiple cases pending before the trial courts therefore he could not be released.