KARACHI, April 12: The Sindh High Court set aside on Monday the conviction and punishment of a Federal Investigation Agency deputy director and two others by an accountability court and remanded the case for separate retrials.

A former FIA deputy director for immigration at the Karachi airport, Chaudhry Mohammad Sharif, who joined the agency as a constable but got accelerated promotions, was charged by the National Accountability Bureau, with amassing wealth and living much beyond his known sources of income.

He purchased a textile mill besides movable and immovable properties in the name of his family members and co-accused Chaudhry Mukhtar, a relative, and Mohammad Hanif, a sacked FIA constable. He is alleged to have acquired 16 pieces of real estate through his frontmen.

Accountability judge Qamaruddin Bohra, since retired, convicted all the three accused. Chaudhry Sharif was sentenced to serve 14 years of rigorous imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs100 million or serve another seven years.

All his movable and immovable assets were forfeited. Hanif and Mukhtar were also to serve 14 years' RI and a fine of Rs10 million each or, in default, five years' additional jail term. Properties owned or held by them in their name were also ordered to be confiscated.

They challenged their conviction and sentences in the high court through Advocate A.Q. Halepota and Mohammad Ashraff Kazi. The counsel submitted that the prosecution had failed to prove that the properties held by Mukhtar and Hanif were really owned by Sharif.

Advocate Kazi argued that Mukhtar was neither a government employee nor a relative of the main accused nor his beneficiary. He could not have been booked by the NAB nor tried by an accountability court.

He was tried together with the former FIA officials and the joint trial had vitiated the entire proceedings of the trial accountability court.

Accepting the plea, an SHC division bench comprising Justices Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Mohammad Afzal Soomro set the impugned judgment aside and remanded the case for retrial by courts of competent jurisdiction separately. All seized properties stand restored with the nullification of the judgment.