January 20, 2003	Monday	Ziqa'ad 16, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Jan 19: An accountability court on Saturday acquitted four relatives of a former MNA, Haji Naseemur Rehman, in a reference pertaining to the possession of illegal assets.

The court, presided over by Syed Yahya Zahid Gillani, accepted the applications filed under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code by the father of Haji Naseem, Haji Anwarur Rehman; his two brothers, Masoodur Rehman and Mujeebur Rehman, and his nephew Faisal Saleem.

The court turned down the application of Haji Naseem’s another nephew, Asad Saleem, when it found that his power of attorney was not in accordance with legal requirements.

Under Section 265-K, the trial court can acquit an accused before the end of the trial if it considers that there is no probability of the conviction of the accused.

Haji Naseem has been absconding since warrants for his arrest were issued by the National Accountability Bureau chairman on Oct 27, 2000. He was sentenced, in absentia, to three years imprisonment under Section 31-A of the NAB ordinance for evading arrest. His appeal against conviction was dismissed by the high court on April 19, 2001.

Advocate Yahya Afridi appeared for the applicants and contended that they were falsely implicated in the reference by the NAB.

He argued that there was no evidence against the applicants on the record which could connect them with the property mentioned by the NAB.

One of the applicants, Anwarur Rehman, was arrested on Aug 14 by the NAB. He was released on bail by the high court.

The NAB had charged Haji Naeemur Rehman with possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. The NAB claimed that he with other applicants, who were directors of Saleem Group of Industries, had also been involved in concealing their actual income. The NAB claimed that they had deceitfully, fraudulently and dishonestly caused a loss of Rs900 million to the national exchequer.