PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Sunday granted bail to two former officials of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) who were accused of issuing Pakistani Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) to the National Geographic magazine’s famed ‘Afghan Girl’, Sharbat Gula.
A single bench of Justice Yahya Afridi issued the release order of two former officials of Nadra including Emad Khan and Mohsin Ehsan on bail after hearing their lawyer and state lawyer representing the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Earlier, the court had also confirmed pre-arrest bail of another female former official of Nadra, Palwasha Afridi, in the same case.During the hearing, the petitioners’ lawyer, Amir Javed, submitted that his clients were innocent and had played no role in verification of the documents that led to issuance the CNIC to Sharbat Gula.
On the other hand, the state lawyer opposed the release and said that issuance of CNICs to Afghan nationals was a high profile case.The FIA on October 20 had registered a case against three former Nadra employees, including the petitioners, for allegedly issuing CNICs to Sharbat Gula and two more Afghan nationals shown as her sons.
The FIR said after completion of inquiry and checking the Nadra records, it was established that three Nadra employees in Peshawar, including Palwasha Afridi, Mohsin Ehsan and Emad Khan had fraudulently issued the Pakistani CNICs to Afghan nationals, including Sharbat Gula, Wali Khan and Rauf Khan.
They were charged under sections 409, 419, 420, 468, 471 and 109 of Pakistan Panel Code, Section 5(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, and Section 30 of the Nadra Ordinance. Mohsin Ehsan was arrested after dismissal of his pre-arrest bail petition by the special immigration court on November 18.
Emad Khan was arrested by the FIA from Islamabad. Sharbat Gula, who was arrested by the FIA on October 26, but was deported to Afghanistan in the wee hours of November 9 after completion of her 10 days sentence and payment of fine Rs1100,000. She was accorded an official welcome in Kabul with Afghan president Dr Ashraf Ghani holding a meeting with her.
