PESHAWAR, June 3: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday set aside conviction of the provincial vice-president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam), Arbab Ghulam Haider, and his three relatives, and acquitted them of murder charges.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan accepted the appeals of the convicts and observed that the evidence on record was not enough to connect the appellants with  the commission of the offence.

The appellants — Mr Haider, Khalid Khan, Saeed Khan and Majeed Khan — were sentenced to life imprisonment on July 6, 2002, by Additional District and Sessions Judge Shehbar Khan.

They had faced trial for killing their relative Mohammad Ishaq Khan on June 5, 1999.

The appellants’ counsel argued that the complainant had charged five persons for a death. He argued that according to the prosecution all the accused were carrying klashnikov rifles and they had fired at the deceased. However, the deceased had received a single bullet injury, he said. He said only four cartridges were recovered from the spot, which were not  sent for examination.