PHC grants bail to former MNA in land scam case

PESHAWAR: Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court Mazhar Alam Miankhel on Wednesday granted interim bail to a former member of the National Assembly belonging to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the Workers Welfare Board land scam.

During hearing of the bail petition, the chief justice questioned how it was possible for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) to take action against Sardar Muhammad Mushtaq when the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had closed its inquiry in the matter after clearing him of the charges.

The division bench comprising the chief justice and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued the interim bail to Sardar Mushtaq and sought reply from the KPEC in the case before the next hearing. The petitioner’s lawyer Nasir Aslam submitted that his client is a landlord of Kot Najibullah area and remained an MNA and MPA. He pointed out that the NAB closed inquiry against him in 2008 on the orders of the court because it NAB couldn’t prove the charges against him.

The lawyer said the recent inquiry and arrest of the petitioner by the KPEC was the result of political rivalry as his rival who lost against him in the 2013 general election has become director investigation and he opened the case against him to avenge his defeat. He said in violation of the law the KPEC arrested the petitioner in the already closed case.

The KPEC deputy prosecutor general sought some time for reply and informed the bench that the petitioner was in physical remand. The KPEC had on Friday arrested the former MNA for his alleged involvement in the Workers Welfare Board land scam. Additional Deputy Prosecutor General of KPEC Qazi Babar Irshad had told the court that Sardar Mushtaq was arrested in connection with the land scam as he had caused loss of millions of rupees to the public exchequer.

The KPEC prosecutor general explained that Sardar Mushtaq with the connivance of officials of Workers Welfare Board sold his 58 kanals land to the organization at higher rate than the market value and caused Rs700 million loss to the exchequer. He said this was the first arrest in this land scam and more arrests were expected.

According to a petition filed by Waqar Shah, a former candidate in the election for the National Assembly constituency NA-19 Haripur, and Riaz Khan, a former union council nazim and close aide of former minister of state Umar Ayub Khan, Sardar Mushtaq had inflicted loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer by changing the category of land he sold to Workers Welfare Board in connivance with revenue officials during 2009.

They had also filed a complaint with the district and session judge Haripur under section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code in 2010 seeking registration of case against the MNA, but it was turned down.The NAB had also launched an inquiry into the scam but the case was hushed up as the former MNA had changed his loyalty from the PML-N to the PPP when the latter was the ruling party in the country.

Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf also visited Sardar Mushtaq’s hometown Khanpur and during his address at a public meeting ahead of the 2013 general election he announced a number of uplift schemes worth millions of rupees for the NA-19 constituency. However, later he rejoined the PML-N secretly. At the time, the PML-N had won the polls and become the ruling party.Sardar Mushtaq was close relative of late chief election commissioner and chief justice Federal Shariat Court Sardar Fakhr-e-Alam Khan.