PESHAWAR, March 9: An executive engineer of Works and Services Department, Ikram Shah, was found guilty of corruption by an accountability court here on Saturday and was awarded seven-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs30 million.

The court, presided over by Syed Yahya Zahid Gillani, also ordered forfeiture of immovable properties to appropriate government an amount of Rs0.963 million in PLS Account in National Bank, Maneri Branch, Swabi.

The convict faced trial for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. The court also directed that the convict stood disqualified from holding any public office for ten years with effect from the date of the judgment. Mr Shah was convicted under Section 10 of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, 1999.

Advocate Qazi Mohammad Anwer represented the defence, whereas special prosecutor Kamran Arif appeared for the NAB. The court ordered that the fine should be paid within one month to the state, failing which it should be set against the forfeited property in terms of Section 11 of the NAB Ordinance.

The convict had been working as executive engineer, Works and Services Department, Swabi district, at the time of his arrest on the night between Jan 12 and 13, 2001.

According to the prosecution he belonged to a lower middle class family and possessed no inherited property.

The assets accumulated by the convict included a plaza in the name of his wife and children on Sugar Mills Road Mardan, six kanal land in the name of his children on Nisata Road, Mardan, on which he constructed seven shops and a boundary wall around the entire property, 207 kanal of agricultural land in the name of his wife and children in Mardan and surroundings, a two kanal plot in Hayatabad Peshawar, later he constructed a bungalow on it; two plots measuring two and one kanal respectively, in Hayatabad; one kanal plot in Swat; and one kanal and 10 marla plot in Habibullah Colony, Abbottabad.