PHC denies interim bail to Ziaullah Afridi, senior official

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday denied interim bail to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s former provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi and Director General of Mines and Minerals Department Liaqat Ali in the cases of illegal mining, appointments and misuse of power.
A two-member bench comprising of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser dismissed the interim bail petitions filed for release of the former provincial minister and director general of the Mines and Minerals Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A short order was announced after hearing arguments from the petitioners’ lawyers and Additional Deputy Prosecutor General of the Ehtesab Commission, Qazi Babar Irshad, and Deputy Prosecutor General Zahid Aman.
They provided a notified copy of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (Amendment) Act 2015 to the court under which legal cover had been given to judicial custody of those arrested in cases of corruption and misuse of power.
The prosecutors submitted that after amendments to the law, the entire relief chapter of interim bail to the arrested accused was closed. About judicial custody of the suspects, they said the Ehtesab Act was a special law and the Ehtesab Court had the powers under the act to send the accused persons on judicial remand to prison at any stage of the case.
In one case of illegal mining and illegal appointments, posting and transfers, the high court had granted interim bail to Ziaullah Afridi on August 24, but he remained in prison on judicial remand in two more cases.
The lawyers for Ziaullah Afridi submitted that the Ehtesab Commission first claimed that he had been arrested in illegal mining generally and later insisted that he had a hand in illegal mining in the Nowshera district.
They pointed out after completion of the period of his physical custody, the Ehtesab Commission again obtained his remand in another two cases by alleging that he was involved in illegal mining in Charsadda and Abbottabad.
The lawyers questioned whether the Ehtesab Commission wanted to keep him in its custody for his entire life. They argued that their client was falsely implicated in the cases on the basis of malafide intention.
They said that under the Ehtesab Act 2014, a suspect could be remanded in custody of the Ehtesab Commission by the Ehtesab Court only for 45 days.
The lawyers argued that their client has been in custody of the Ehtesab Commission for 45 days since his arrest. They pointed out that the Ehtesab Court sent him on judicial remand in two more cases that were similar in nature to the first one.
Counsels for the arrested Director General of Mines and Minerals Department Dr Liaqat Ali, submitted that like the former provincial minister, the commission also booked him in four cases during his physical custody and got his 55 days physical remand as the commission was only authorised for taking custody of the accused of 45 days.
They submitted that the Ehtesab Commission had recently booked the DG of Mines and Minerals in another illegal mining case and obtained his 12 days physical remand from the Ehtesab Court.
They said the commission again picked up Dr Liaqat Ali from the Central Prison Peshawar in a fresh case about illegal mining of chromate from Tangi in the Charsadda district and phosphate from the Abbottabad district.
Earlier, the commission had arrested him on June 17, 2015 in illegal mining carried out at Mamakhel area, Nizampur in Nowshera.