PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has freed a former adviser to former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti in the police weapons procurement case.

The release of Niaz Ali Shah comes on the orders of a local accountability court issued on Saturday after he voluntarily returned Rs20 million to the NAB.

Shah, who was arrested on Jan 7 and was remanded into the NAB custody for 14 days by the court, was produced before Judge Wilayat Ali Gandapur by the officials of the bureau. The officials, including Special Prosecutor Lajbar Khan, informed the court that the accused had given application under Section 25 of the NAB Ordinance for voluntary return (VR) of the amount of which he was accused of receiving from private contractor Arshad Majeed, who was awarded most of the contracts of the weapons procurement during 2009-10.

The prosecutor said the NAB chairman and the executive board had approved the request of the accused in this respect and that the NAB had no objection to his release.

The court ordered the release of the accused in the case. On Jan 7, the NAB had also arrested Raza Ali, brother-in-law of Mr Hoti`s brother Ghazan Khan, in the same case. Former provincial police officer Malik Naveed has also been in custody for over 50 days.

The NAB alleged that Mr Niaz, who was adviser to the then chief minister on law and order, had received Rs20 million from Arshad Majeed.

It added that Mr Niaz had directed Arshad to provide Rs1 million in US dollars and rest of the money in Pakistani currency. It is worth mentioning that at the request of the police department, the provincial government had approved purchase and the upgrading of weapons and equipment for their use to counter terrorism. Over Rs7 billion was released by the government for the purpose.

Initially, the NAB arrested Arshad Majeed and budget officer of police Javed Khan but the former was released after the high court granted him bail on agreement to voluntarily return Rs102 million.

Later, Arshad Majeed recorded his statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure alleging that he`d made over Rs1 billion payments to several personalities, including Malik Naveed, as kickbacks for getting lucrative contracts and cover-up of theissue.