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PESHAWAR, July 17: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday granted bail to a former senator of PML-N, Jawed Iqbal Abbasi in an accountability case.
The bench comprising Justice Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Ijaz Afzal accepted a writ petition filed by Mr Abbasi and directed that he should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs5 million each.
An accountability appellate bench of the high court on May 28 had set aside the conviction of Mr Abbasi by an accountability court and remanded his case back to the trial court.
Senior advocate M Sardar Khan appeared for the petitioner and argued that he was arrested on Aug 20, 2000 and ever since had been behind bars.
He stated that Mr Abbasi was convicted by the trial court on Nov 29, 2001 and was sentenced to five years in prison along with a fine of Rs21.52 million. He added that the accountability appellate bench had reserved its judgment in 2002 over the appeal of the petitioner and pronounced it on May 28, whereby the case was remanded to the trial court. Mr Khan argued that the trial court was yet to commence the re-trial.
He added that the petitioner had already spent three years in detention and, therefore, could be released on bail.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had charged Mr Abbasi with possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
NOTICE ISSUED: A single bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday issued a pre-admission notice to a former MNA of ANP, Haji Naseemur Rehman in a petition filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
NAB had challenged the charge framed against Mr Rehman by an accountability court stating that the trial court had only mentioned assets of the accused acquired after 1997 as in that year the accused had held office for the first time.
In the case of a former MNA of PML-N, Haji Kabir Khan the Peshawar High Court had ruled that the holder of a public office was accountable for properties acquired by him only after holding office. The judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court.
On the basis of that judgment the accountability court framed charges against Mr Rehman for only those properties which he had acquired after 1997.
