PESHAWAR, Sep 15: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday returned to an accountability court the case of former NWFP chief secretary Khalid Aziz, seeking his acquittal in an accountability reference before conclusion of the trial. A two-member bench, comprising Justice Shehzad Akber Khan and Justice Ijaz Afzal, disposed of a writ petition filed by Mr Aziz, challenging the dismissal by the accountability court of his application.

The court set aside the impugned order of the accountability court and directed the presiding officer, Attaullah Khan, to examine the legal points raised by the petitioner.

Few months ago, the accountability court dismissed an application filed by Aziz under section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code, seeking his acquittal before conclusion of his trial. Under the said section, the trial court is empowered to acquit an accused person before conclusion of the trial if there is not enough evidence on record.

Through the present writ petition, Aziz has challenged the order of the accountability court and requested the high court to acquit him in that reference.

The National Accountability Bureau has charged Aziz of inflicting loss of Rs15 million to the exchequer by awarding a contract of provision of furniture for primary schools to a firm owned by his family while he was additional chief secretary in the province.

The petitioner’s counsel, Abdul Samad Khan, argued that the case amounted to double jeopardy as the same charges were levelled against the petitioner in an earlier reference. He contended that under the constitution, no person could be tried twice for the same offence.

Mr Khan stated that the petitioner was tried on charges of possession of illegal assets and in that reference, the same amount of Rs15 million was also mentioned. In that case, he added, the petitioner was convicted and the appeal had now been pending before the Supreme Court.