LAHORE, Aug 8: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday set aside two judgments of accountability courts convicting Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo on corruption charges.

Comprising Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jilani and Mian Saqib Nisar, the bench ordered the release of former Punjab chief minister forthwith if he was not required in any other case. It observed the prosecution had failed in establishing charges in the two references filed under Ehtesab Act, 1997.

The first reference pertained to violation of chief minister’s discretionary grant rules while second is related to illegal allotment of 110 plots.

In the first reference decided by accountability court judge Mahmood Akhtar Siddiqui on Jan 6, 2001, Wattoo was awarded three years RI and fined Rs10 million for having misused his authority as chief minister. He was charged with having provided financial assistance of Rs1,061,125 to a commercial enterprise, Design Tex, out of the chief minister’s discretionary grant without any legal authority against pecuniary advantage.

According to the prosecution the amount was drawn through a PLA cheque in March 1995 for furnishing 90 Shahra-i-Quaid-e-Azam. As alleged by the prosecution, chief minister’s discretionary grant rules 1988 did not provide for any such sanction. The trial court had convicted Wattoo also on the grounds that ordered furniture was never supplied and had been misappropriated.

The bench while deciding the appeal filed against the conviction in this reference, observed that charges of obtaining pecuniary advantage against the accused had not been established by the prosecution and he could not be convicted under section 3 (1) (d) of Ehtesab Act 1997 in this regard.

It was further observed that trial court had travelled beyond its jurisdiction by ordering for the collection of additional evidence against accused.

In the last portion of the judgment, the LHC observed that the decision of Manzoor Wattoo for the renovation and furnishing of 90-Shahrah-i-Quaid-e-Azam was not based on dishonesty and intention of misappropriation.

In the second reference, Wattoo had been sentenced to four years RI and fined Rs four million by AC judge Sheikh Rafique Goreja on April 4, 2000, for allotting state owned to 110 people in different schemes of LDA on the last date of his tenure as Punjab chief minister. As alleged by the prosecution, 63 of the plots in question were allotted by the accused without obtaining any formal applications. The LHC bench ruled that Wattoo as CM had the discretionary quota under a policy which was valid and in force when the allotments were made by him.

Mukhtar: Former commerce minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar sought permission from an accountability court on Thursday to leave abroad for one month.

The court issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for Aug 12 for reply on the application.

Mr Mukhtar pleaded that his brother Ahmad Javed was to undergo cardiac surgery in the US on Aug 23.

He said he had to make arrangements in this regard and was supposed to be in US two days before the surgery. He sought permission to leave for the US and exemption from personal appearance from Aug 21 to Sept 20.

Chaudhry Mukhtar said he had sought permission from the interior ministry which had asked him to seek court’s permission.

Earlier, Punjab former food minister Tikka Iqbal was allowed to leave for the US for his medical treatment by the NAB on the Lahore High Court directions earlier this month.

Mr Mukhtar is the second PPP leader from the Punjab after Faisal Saleh Hayat seeking permission from an accountability court for leaving abroad. Mr Faisal was facing a wilful default reference had been allowed to leave for Canada in February, 2001, by the court for three months. However, he returned in February last when the court was about to initiate proclamation process against him for having remained absent from the trial without any permission.