PESHAWAR, Aug 2: The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday suspended conviction of former federal minister for communication and leader of ANP, Azam Khan Hoti, by an accountability court, granting him protective bail.

The bench, comprising Justice Mansoor Ahmad and Justice Tanveer Bashir Ansari, directed that the petitioner should not be arrested and that he should furnish two sureties amounting to one-million-rupee each.

Mr Hoti was convicted by an accountability court in the Attock Fort on April 7 for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with fine amounting to Rs1.5 million and forfeiture of some of his properties. However, the National Accountability Bureau had been unable to arrest him.

Earlier, Mr Hoti was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by another court in Attock after he was found guilty of awarding a contract of emergency telephone system on the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway to a contractor without following the normal procedure on inflated rates. His appeal against the previous conviction has also been pending before the Rawalpindi bench of the LHC. He was also allowed bail in that case.

Senior advocate Qazi Mohammad Anwer, appearing for the petitioner, argued that Mr Hoti was seriously sick and could not be treated inside the prison if he was arrested. He contended that his earlier conviction had already been suspended, adding that he had been on bail when he had been convicted again.

Mr Anwer prayed the court to suspend Mr Hoti’s sentence and requested it to direct the authorities not to arrest him.

Mr Anwer did not produce any medical record of the petitioner, but the bench decided to allow him protective bail, observing that the bench had no reason to doubt the integrity of the counsel.

As Azam Hoti had evaded the NAB for about four months, sparking rumours of secret deals between the ANP and the government.