PESHAWAR, Dec 1: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday sent the case of a former MNA, Haji Naseemur Rehman, to the accountability court regarding a reference of absconding from law.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, disposed of a writ petition filed by Haji Naseemur Rehman and directed the accountability court to consider various points raised by the petitioner's counsel, Yahya Afridi.

The petitioner challenged an order of the accountability court, which on August 19 had dismissed his application filed under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code, seeking his acquittal before conclusion of trial.

The petitioner requested the high court to set aside the impugned order of the accountability court and acquit him. The accountability court has been trying the petitioner in a reference pertaining to his absconding from law, which is punishable up to three years imprisonment under Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance, 1999.

Under Section 265-K CrPC the trial court has the powers to acquit an accused before conclusion of trial when the evidence against him is not enough to convict him.

Yahya Afridi appeared for the petitioner and contended that the trial court while dismissing their application had not touched the legal points raised by him. He added that the court issued a blanket order through which the application under Section 265-K was dismissed.

Mr Afridi argued that the trial court had issued arrest warrants on the name of the petitioner under Section 204 CrPC before the filing of the present reference. He contended that under the law the said process could only be started after taking cognizance of the offence, and in the present case the court issued the warrants before taking cognizance of the case.

In the present case, Mr Afridi stated, the warrants were issued on December 18, 2000, whereas the reference was filed on March 3, 2001. He argued that the trial court erred in dismissing the application filed under Section 265-k CrPC.

The accused was initially convicted by the accountability court in absentia and sentenced to three years imprisonment on April 2, 2001. The high court had set aside his conviction in absentia under Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance and remanded back the case to the accountability court for re-trial.

Last year he was granted protective bail by the Supreme Court. The petitioner has already been acquitted in the main reference pertaining to possession of illegal assets.