PHC grants bail to ex-IGP Malik Naveed

Weapons procurement case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued release order of the former inspector general of police Malik Naveed Khan on bail in the multi-billion rupees weapons purchase scam in the provincial police department.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Lal Jan Khattak announced the release order of the former IGP on bail. It directed him to secure his release on bail by submitting two surety bonds worth Rs5 million each. The court had reserved its judgement in the case after hearing arguments of the lawyers. Naveed Khan’s lawyer argued that he should be freed on medical grounds after suffering long delays in the trial in the accountability court.

On the request of the petitioner, the PHC had also constituted a medical board and the report also proposed treatment of the petitioner in a better hospital as he was a heart patient.

The petitioner’s lawyer Abdul Sattar Khan argued that three senior police officers have also joined the trial in the case after three years and this will further delay the case for four or five years and thus the petitioner will remain in prison for many years without trial. He requested the court to release the petitioner on bail as he was cooperating with the NAB and also will contest the case in the court as he needs proper treatment.

The NAB prosecutor opposed his release on bail and submitted that the Peshawar High Court and Supreme Court had already refused bail to him in the case. However, the prosecutor failed to defend the long delay in starting trial of the petitioner in the accountability court.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A man was killed in a road accident on Dera Ismail Khan-Draban Road near Gundi Ashiq on Wednesday, official sources said. They identified him as one Abdussatar, 50, who was was on his way home on the  Dera-Draban Road.