PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday arrested former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti’s brother, Ameer Ghazan Khan, after the Peshawar High Court denied him pre-arrest bail in a case about the alleged embezzlement in procurement of weapons for police.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Malik Manzoor pronounced a short order regarding non-confirmation of pre-arrest bail to Mr Ghazan after completion of arguments by both the parties.

It had earlier granted interim pre-arrest bail to the petitioner on April 3 and fixed the case for final arguments for Tuesday.

The bench also dismissed bail pleas of former provincial police officer Malik Naveed Khan and Mr Ghazan’s brother-in-law, Raza Ali, in the case.

The verdict on the two pleas was reserved on April 3 after the two sides completed arguments.

Soon after the court pronounced the order, the NAB officials, including senior investigation officer retired colonel Hussain Afridi, took Mr Ghazan in custody and whisked him away.

Mr Ghazan will be produced before an accountability court today (Wednesday) for physical remand.

The NAB has charged Mr Ghazan with receiving Rs195 million kickbacks from the prime accused in the case, Arshad Majeed, a private contractor, who was given most big contracts of the procurement of weapons and other items from 2008 to 2010.

Mr Majeed was released after the high court granted him bail in May last year after he agreed to voluntarily return Rs102 million.

In a statement, he had named several people, including Malik Naveed and Mr Ghazan, for receiving kickbacks from him for awarding contracts to him.

He had alleged that he paid Rs195 million to Mr Ghazan’s front man, Raza, at his (Arshad Majeed’s) house.

The lawyer for Mr Ghazan said his client was falsely implicated in the case and that there existed no evidence of corruption against him.

He said the NAB had been relying on Arshad Majeed’s claim that the money was given to Mr Ghazan through his front man.

The lawyer said it was a case of political victimisation and that his client’s only crime was being the brother of a former chief minister from the Awami National Party.

He said while the NAB had filed a reference with the accountability court, the petitioner had already appeared before that court and that the case was no longer in the investigation stage and therefore, his arrest would not be beneficial for the purpose.

Deputy prosecutor general of NAB Jamil Khan said approver Arshad Majeed had alleged that Mr Ghazan had received money from him and in return, the approver was told to enhance the rate of bulletproof jackets which he had to provide to police.

He said apart from Arshad Majeed, two people, including Faisal Akhtar and Zahid Ayub, had also claimed that the money was given to Raza in their presence and that they had e-mails of different suspects in support of the claim.

The deputy prosecutor general said it was not a case of political victimisation because if the NAB wanted to victimise Mr Ghazan and then it would have implicated his brother, Ameer Haider Hoti, in the case.

In the case, a court martial has already convicted four military officers and sentenced them to seven years imprisonment and Rs30 million fine each.

The officials, including Colonel Iftikhar, Major Owais Chaudhry, Major Tabbasum and Major Khurram Sheikh, had given their expert opinion regarding weapons and other items procured for police, including bulletproof jackets and ballisticproof helmets.

The NAB had arrested the prime accused in the case, Malik Naveed, on Nov 20. Later, he was sent to the judicial lock-up by the accountability court and since Jan 16, he has been hospitalised as he had complained of heart problem.

One of the suspects in the case, Jawed Khan, who was a budget officer in the police department, had already been freed after the high court granted him bail.

The NAB claimed that over Rs7 billion was released by the provincial government for the procurement of weapons, vehicles and equipment for countering the unabated law and order situation in the province.

A formal reference of Rs2.03 billion corruption has already been filed against 10 of the suspects, including Malik Naveed, Frontier Constabulary commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat, Mr Ghazan, Mr Raza and six other police officials.