LAHORE, July 2: An ehtesab bench of the Lahore High Court reserved on Wednesday its judgment on the petition of former PASSCO secretary Maj Nawaz Malik (retired), challenging his conviction in a NAB reference.

An accountability court had sentenced the former secretary to 14 years rigorous imprisonment with Rs2.4 million fine on charges of acquiring assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Petitioner’s counsel Manzoor Ahmad Malik argued that the prosecution had failed to establish charges of acquisition of properties by the petitioner in the name of benamidars.

Three prosecution witnesses turned hostile during the testimony.

“The trial court erred in perusing the defence evidence as the petitioner had established his innocence by giving the documentary proof of the acquisition of assets by him from 1985 to 1999 when he was arrested by NAB authorities on charges of living beyond means,” he submitted.

According to the counsel the total value of the petitioner’s assets as assessed by the NAB was Rs3.5 million which was not alarming when compared with the economic status of a grade-21 officer.

“Even if the value of the properties allegedly acquired through benamidar transactions is included in the assets owned by the petitioner, the total runs to Rs6.5 million.

This still cannot provoke the NAB authorities to arrest the former PASSCO secretary since the petitioner has all the legal means to acquire property to this tune,” the counsel said.

He submitted that prosecution was required to prove that the petitioner had resorted to illegal means, including the misappropriation of funds, to amass assets but nothing such had been brought on the judicial record.

NAB counsel S.M. Nazim refuted the submissions and claimed that the prosecution had proved its case against the petitioner beyond any shadow of doubt.

He requested the courtto uphold the trial court’s verdict.