LAHORE, April 10: An Ehtesab bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday sent a NAB reference against former provincial labour minister Ejaz Ahmad Sheikh back to the accountability court for retrial, suspending his conviction and granting him bail.

The former minister, sentenced to 14-year imprisonment by an accountability court on charges of amassing illegal assets in abuse of his official position, had pleaded that the reference be sent back to the trial court, because his wife, son and brother-in-law, who were Benamidars in the reference, had not been asked to disclose their sources of income.

His counsel, Rashdeen Nawaz Kasuri, submitted that the court did not record statements of the three Benamidars in Mr Ahmad’s transaction pertaining to telegraphic transfers of Rs1.5 million. The Supreme Court had ruled that the trial court could not convict an accused for amassing illegal assets unless his family members, shown as Benamidars in the reference, were summoned by the court and inquired about their sources of income, the counsel argued.

He further submitted that the accountability court had already ruled that Rs6.6 million of Mr Ahmad’s assets had legal sources. The only question to be decided by the court during retrial was whether the telegraphic transfers had a legal source, the counsel submitted.

According to Mr Rashdeen, his client had already served an eight-year sentence and deserved a bail during retrial under the jail manual.