PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday grante d interim pre-arrest bail to Workers Welfare Fund secretary Iftikhar Rahim in a case of misuse of authority.

The National Accountability Bureau Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been conducting investigation into the WWF secretary`s alleged misuse of authority over the release of funds to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Workers Welfare Board for equipment procurement.

A bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Mussarat Hilall fixed Oct 14 for the next hearing into a petition of the secretary challenging issuance of a `call-up notice` to him by the NAB asking him to appear before it in the case.

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The bench also directed the petitioner to furnish two surety bonds of Rs2 million each.

The NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has already arrested several WWB officials including former chairman Aizazur Rehman, secretary Tariq Awan, director (finance)Mohammad Ibrar Hussain, former director (finance) Mohammad Imran Wazir and several contractors on the charge of illegal allotment of different contracts for procurement of over Rs3.5 billion worth of equipment.

Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah, lawyer for the petitioner, said the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had begun an inquiry regarding allotment of contracts to blue-eyed contractors by some WWB officials and supply of substandard equipments and that the inquiry was later converted to investigation.

He said his client was BPS-21 official and that he had received a `call-up notice` from NAB in the case.

The lawyer said his client`s only responsibility was to release funds to WWBs in the province in accordance with their needs and that he got nothing to do with the affairs of those boards.

He said in the reference filed against Tariq Awan and other persons, the name of the petitioner had not been mentioned and therefore, there was no justification in implicating him in the case.

Also, the bench granted interim pre-arrest bail to former district revenue officer Khan Buksh Marwat, who was also given a `call-up notice` by the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a case of allotment of 600 kanals of government land to different people on lease.

The bench directed the NAB not to arrest the petitioner until final decision on his petition. It also asked the petitioner to furnish two surety bonds valuing Rs4 million each.

Arshad Ali, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client was a member of a committee, which had approved the leasing out of the said land in 2006-07, and that several departmental inquiries were conducted into the lease issue but the relevant officers were declared innocent. He said 32 days after the land allotment orders were issued, the government cancelled them and therefore, the exchequer suffered no loss.