PESHAWAR, Nov 30: An accountability court here on Thursday convicted a former senator and ex-chairman of district council Abbottabad, Javed Iqbal Abbasi, and sentenced him to five years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs21.25 million.

The court presided over by Miftauddin Khan also ordered that the share of the accused and his family members in Kohistan Flour Mills, purchased after 1980 and ownership rights in the building/machinery to the extent of their shares (Rs1.1 million), bank accounts, immovable properties purchased after 1980 and was constructed upon, were forfeited to the appropriate government authorities.

Under the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance 1999, Abbasi also stands disqualified from holding any public office for a period of 10 years. He was charged with possessing of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, which is a crime under section 9 of the NAB Ordinance.

The ex-senator was arrested on August 28, 2000 after it was established that as a holder of public office and public representative he had accumulated movable/immovable properties not in accordance with his known sources of income as well as misused his authority. Special prosecutor of the NAB, Qazi Rasheedul Haq appeared for the state, whereas, Advocate Abdus Samad Khan represented the defence.

According to the Regional Accountability Bureau, the properties/assets wrongfully owned, controlled and possessed by the accused, his dependents and benamidars and acts of illegalities committed by him are: shares in Kohistan Flour Mills; 13 residential plots including plot in Islamabad on which a bungalow was constructed and disposed of; over 483 kanals of land; house and shops in ancestral village spread over an area of 23 kanals; through manipulation of revenue record illegally occupied 300 kanals of ‘demarcated forest land’ belonging to forest department; despite owning huge properties and assets he had been declaring nominal income in his income tax and wealth tax returns; notable bank transaction amounting to Rs2.66m; and, as chairman of district council Abbottabad during 1991-92, auctioned export tax on the basis of old rates to his favourites.

The prosecution had claimed that the accused belonged to a family that barely held 23 kanals of land in the village Seer Gharbi, Havelian, Abbottabad. His father owned a petty general store in Landa Bazaar, Havelian.

In 1979 he was elected chairman district council. In 1983 he was re-elected; in 1985, he was elected MNA from NA-12 Abbottabad and represented the constituency till 1987 without relinquishing the chairmanship of the council; in 1990, he was re-elected as MNA and in 1997 he became a senator.