PESHAWAR, Aug 26: An accountability court has acquitted a former MNA of the Awami National Party, Haji Naseemur Rehman, in a reference pertaining to possession of illegal assets.

The court presided over by Syed Yahya Zahid Gillani accepted an application of Mr Rehman filed under Section 265(k) of the Criminal Procedure Code, under which the trial court is empowered to acquit an accused before conclusion of the trial when there is no possibility of his conviction.

The  accused had filed the application at the outset of the trial. He stated that he was innocent and had not acquired the property through illegal means. The court had charged him of possessing a plot worth Rs1.36 million.

Initially, Mr Rehman could not be arrested and he was sentenced to three years imprisonment under Section 31(a) of the NAB Ordinance, 1999, for evading arrest. However, he was granted pre-arrest bail by the Supreme Court, his sentence was set aside by the Peshawar High Court and the case was remanded back to the trial court.

The bail granted to the Mr Rehman was mentioned in the white paper published by the Pakistan bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association.

Advocate Yahya Afridi appeared for the accused and contended that  the applicant had legal means to acquire the property. He said there was  no evidence on record to suggest that the property was acquired through illegal means.

The court had mentioned only those properties of Mr Rehman which he had acquired after 1997, when he became an MNA.

The National Accountability Bureau had objected to it, contending that the NAB Ordinance was applicable from 1985, therefore the property acquired before 1997 should also be included. However, the court turned down the NAB’s request and observed that only those properties of an accused could be questioned which were acquired after he became a public office holder.

The high court had turned down the request of the NAB and dismissed its writ petition against the order of the accountability court.

During the absence of Mr Rehman, his father, two brothers and two  nephews were also indicted in the reference, but they were acquitted by the court, observing that they were not public office holders.