PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday granted interim pre-arrest bail to Chief of Customs Wing, Federal Bureau of Revenue, Akhlag Ahmad Khattak, and stopped the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from arresting him in a case of the alleged possession of illegal assets.

A bench consisting of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Irshad Qaisar directed the petitioner, Akhlag Khattak, to furnish two surety bonds of Rs1 million each.

It also put on notice the NAB director general asking him to furnish comments about the petition seeking pre-arrest ball.

The bench Exed the next hearing for Nov 18.

On Oct 22, 2014, the NAB executive board had authorised an inquiry against the petition on account of possession of assets which were allegedly disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Few days ago, the NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had issued a call-up notice to him asking him to turn up at the regional headquarters of the bureau. Following the issuance of the notice he had moved the Islamabad High Court which had granted protective bail to him so that he could move the concerned high court.

Syed Arshad Ali, lawyer for the petitioner, said the NAB had been trying to implicate his client in a concocted case.

He said his client was a senior civil servant and had been in service since 1990.

The lawyer said besides the petitioner, his spouse had also served in the government.

He added that the properties, which were in the name of the petitioner, had been acquired by legal means and those pointed out by the NAB as his but registered in the name of other persons (benamidar) did not belong to him.

The lawyer said the NAB had wrongly presumed that certain properties of the petitioner`s brother were belonged to him (petitioner).