LAHORE, Jan 28: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction of former MNA Munawar Munj, who had been sentenced to death and fined one million rupees by an anti-narcotics court on drug-trafficking charges.

The co-accused, Mohammad Siddique and Abdus Sattar, also had their death sentence commuted to life imprisonment by the LHC.

The court observed that the prosecution had no incriminating evidence against Mr Munj and had failed to satisfy it regarding his conviction. There was nothing on record to suggest his connivance with the co-accused, the court observed.

It also gave the benefit of the doubt to the co-accused while commuting their capital punishments with the observation that following the acquittal of the principal accused, these punishments could not be enforced.

Mr Munj had argued before the court that his nomination and subsequent conviction in the case was political victimisation at the behest of a rival of his who was a provincial minister at that time and had deep relations with the then deputy-director of Punjab Anti-Narcotics Force.

He further submitted that there was no evidence available to suggest that co-accused Abdus Sattar was his bodyguard.

The three men had been convicted by the trial court on Aug 10, 2001, on charges of smuggling 35kg of heroin and 30kg of Charas from Sheikhupura to Lahore on April 14, 1995.

According to the prosecution, the ANF, acting on a tip-off, intercepted a car (MNN-1797), which was occupied by the two co-accused and was on its way from Sheikhupura to Lahore. Drugs were recovered from the car following a thorough search.

Six day after their arrest, Mr Munj was arrested by the ANF on the basis of the statement of the co-accused, who alleged that they were smuggling the drugs at his behest.

Some 15 prosecution witnesses were produced in this case in the trial court.