PESHAWAR, April 17: Setting aside conviction of former NWFP chief minister Aftab Sherpao by an accountability court, an accountability appellate bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday acquitted him in a case of absconding from law.

The bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, and Mr Justice Malik Hamid Saeed ruled that the abscondence of the appellant was not wilful in terms of section 31-A of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, 1999.

The appellant was sentenced in absentia to three years rigorous imprisonment by an accountability court on Sept 20, 2000, after a reference was filed against him under Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance by NAB.

The bench observed that the procedure given under Section 87 of the Criminal Procedure Code for declaring a person proclaimed offender had not been followed in the present case. It further observed that under the law, first summons had to be issued, then arrest warrants followed by a proclamation and advertisement in a newspaper, but in case of the appellant that procedure had not been followed.

Moreover, the bench ruled that the appellant had left the country on Jan 31, 2000, and it appeared that it had not been in his knowledge that NAB had instituted a case against him. The court observed that the trial court should have served the appellant through the Pakistani High Commission in the UK.