PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday granted bail to seven persons including a former managing director of Elementary Education Foundation (EEF) and five bankers who were arrested by the Khyber PakhtunkhwaEhtesabCommission (KPEC) on charges of misappropriating around Rs45.8 million of the foundation.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan ordered that the seven petitioners should furnish two sureties each of one million rupees.

The petitioners included: an ex-MD of the foundation, Ahmad Khan; EEF`s budget and accounts officer Muhammad Ali; a former manager of Samba Bank, Mir Mustansar Ali; manager Silk Bank, Abdul Haseeb Jan; operational manager Silk Bank Shakeel Safeel; a former manager of Samba Bank, Faraz Ahmad; and branch manager of Dubai Islamic Bank.

Several lawyers appeared for the petitioners including Barrister Mudassir Amir, Shumail Ahmad Butt, Abdul Samad Khan, Sardar Ali Raza, Malik Haroon Iqbal,Sahibzada Sikander and Khezar Hayat Khazana.

Barrister Mudassir, who represented Muhammad Ali, argued that the controversy revolved around Rs45.8 million of EEF which was invested in Samba Bank in June 2013 for a period of six months. He stated that on basis of a forged letter purportedly issued by the EEF on Dec 6, 2013, the said money was transferred to Silk Bank to an account by the name of Book Foundation.

He argued that the said amount was misappropriated from that account by a relations manager of Samba Banl< Sheraz Khan. He added that when the maturity time of the said amount arrived the high-ups of EEF came to know that it was transferred to the other bank on basis of that forged letter. He added that the said letter was also carrying fake signatures of the MD.

He pointed out that the MD filed a complaint before the FIA, which conducted initial inquiry and on its basis an FIR was registered in Apr 2014. He added that the FIA inquiry revealed that the said letter was fake and Sheraz Khan had misappropriated the money in connivance with some other bank officials.He argued that the final charge sheet was submitted before a special court dealing with offences in banking which declared Sheraz Khan proclaimed offender and issued his perpetual arrest warrants as he had escaped abroad with the looted money. Apart from that, he claimed that Sheraz Khan had also in almost same manner looted Rs10 million of Peshawar Development Authority.

Barrister Mudassir argued that once the FIA had conducted an inquiry and given its findings the KPEC had no authority to re-open the said case. He added that under section 35 of the KPEC once a federal agency had taken cognizance of an issue the commission had no powers to re-investigate the same issue.

Shumail Butt pointed out that when the said incident had taken place the petitioner Ahmad Khan was already posted out.

Samad Khan, who represented Abdul Haseeb and Shakeel, argued that an account was opened in Silk Bank in 2012 by one Faheem Jan in the name of Book Foundation. He added that three pay orders issued from Samba Bank on name of Faheem Jan was received in Silk Bank, which was sent to Samba Bank for clearance under the rele-vant rules.

He added that his two clients had not committed any wrongdoing as it was the responsibility of Samba Bank to verify whether those pay orders were rightly issued or not.

About Faraz Ahmad, his counsel Malik Haroon stated that he had left his job as manager Samba Bank in Oct 2013, whereas the alleged crime took place in Dec 2013, so he had no connection with it.

A deputy prosecutor general of KPEC, Zahid Aman, argued that the FIA officials were misguided by the accused persons due to which they had not taken into consideration several important aspects of this case. He pointed out that on recommendation of Finance and Investment Committee of EEF an amount of Rs140 million was inves te d in Dubai Islamic Bank and later on the said amount was shifted to Samba bank.

He argued that without the connivance of the high-ups of the EEF the transferring of money from one bank to another was not possible.

He claimed that Faheem Jan, on whose name a business account was opened in Silk Bank, was an ordinary driver, which showed active connivance of all the arrested persons.