PHC dismisses bail plea of senior Pesco official in graft case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday dismissed the bail petition of a senior official of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) on charges of receiving bribe.
A single bench of Justice Irshad Qaiser dismissed the bail petition of the Pesco chief engineer (commercial), Pervez Akhtar Shah, after hearing arguments from both sides. The Federal Investigation Agency (Anti-Corruption Circle) in January 2015 arrested Pervez Akhtar Shah on charges of receiving bribe to the tune of Rs130 million on the pretext of providing concessional electricity to Afghan refugee camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pervez Akhtar Shah, who also briefly served as Pesco chief executive, was taken into custody by a team of FIA led by inspector Shahid Ilyas. The first information report was registered against him under section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
During hearing of the bail petition, counsel for petitioner submitted before the bench that his client was a grade-20 officer and these were mere allegations against him. He argued that investigation against the petitioner was in the initial stage and thus he be released on bail.
The standing counsel, FM Sabir, representing the federal government, submitted before the bench that the FIA took action on a private complaint in the case against the Pesco official. He revealed that a Pesco official Muhammad Ayaz had recorded his statement in which he stated that he first deposited Rs9.6 million in his bank account and Rs500,000 later.
The counsel provided record of the petitioner in the court in which the FIA had traced 109 bank accounts of Pervez Akhtar Shah in his name and also in the name of his wife, two sons and daughter in various banks across the country.