LAHORE, Oct 19: Former MNA from the NWFP Haji Kabir Khan on Wednesday surrendered before the Lahore High Court as required by the law to enable himself to plead for the hearing of his writ petition against his conviction by an accountability court.

On a court order, the police took Kabir Khan into custody. The court will take up his plea against the conviction on Thursday.

An accountability court sentenced Mr Khan to three years in prison for failing to appear in the court for more than three years in a reference in which he was held as a co-accused with former chairman of Lahore district council Chaudhry Shaukat Ali on the charge of misappropriating the council fund.

The court started proceedings on the reference in Feb, 2002, and the co-accused failed to appear in the court even once for three and a half year.

Throughout the proceedings Kabir Khan did not respond to various measures taken by the court to ensure his presence. The court first issued bailable warrants for his arrest, then declared him a proclaimed offender and served on him notices through newspapers and by pasting it on his home in Lahore and Nowshera. He was sentenced in absentia under section 31-A of the Ehtasab Act, 1999.

However, the former MNA surfaced within a few days after the conviction to move the LHC. The court refused to hear the petition with the observation that he should first surrender to qualify himself to press for hearing of his petition.