LAHORE, Feb 10: An accountability court on Saturday acquitted former minister Chaudhry Akhtar Varyo, who had been charged with accumulating assets disproportionate to known sources of his income and misuse of power.

According to the NAB reference, the former minister had acquired 1,167 kanals of agriculture land in Sialkot and Gujrat besides shares in Top Links sports gear factory. He owned a palatial house on about 12 kanals worth around Rs50 million on Mahmood Ghaznavi Road, Sialkot. He also owned a house in Garden Town, Lahore. He had also been charged with using money of a community centre to build a farmhouse in village Kala Harawan. The former minister as chairman of the Sialkot district council also caused loss to national exchequer.

His counsel, however, said the court acquitted his client when the charges against him could not be proved.

Mr Varyo had been declared an absconder. He was sentenced to three years on June 13, 2001, after his trial in absentia when he disappeared after issuance of arrest warrants in 2000. He was arrested on January 28, 2003 when he had come to hospital to inquire after his ailing son. Later, the Lahore High Court bailed him out on May 28, 2003 on medical grounds.