PESHAWAR, Sept 7: An accountability court here on Saturday convicted a former superintendent of Frontier Constabulary (FC) in a corruption reference and sentenced him to six years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs19.7 million.

The accountability court judge Ms Zarqaish Sani also ordered that properties possessed by the accused, Haji Zaro Jan, should be forfeited. She ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused and the evidence on record proved the commission of the offence.

Soon after the judgment was pronounced, the accused, presently residing in Rawalpindi, was taken into custody and was shifted to the Peshawar central prison.

The National Accountability Bureau (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) had field a reference against the accused stating that while being posted as superintendent in FC he had misused his office and was possessing ill gotten wealth.

The NAB alleged that he possessed assets including shops, plots and residences, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.

NAB special prosecutor, Lajbar Khan argued before the court that the bureau had placed on record around 17 properties possessed by the accused or his close relatives and during the trial he could not prove that the same were acquired through honest means.

He contended that around 38 prosecution witnesses had turned up and testified against the suspect, proving beyond any doubt that he had illegal properties, which was a crime under the NAB Ordinance 1999.

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court on Friday acquitted 17 activists of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl in a case of storming and ransacking courts in Charsadda district during an electoral dispute over vote recount.

While acquitting the suspects, the judge Anwer Hussain Khan also issued perpetual arrest warrants of Mufti Gohar Ali Shah, prime accused in the case, who was contesting candidate of JUI during the May 11 general elections, as he has been absconding and has already been declared a proclaimed offender.

The acquitted suspects had filed an application before the court under section 265-K of CrPC, which empowers the trial judge to acquit an accused person at any stage of the trial when the evidence on record is not enough for conviction.

The court had accepted that application.

The acquitted persons included Sher Rehman, Abdur Rauf, Inamullah, Liaqat Khan, Qari Aslam and others.