PESHAWAR, Dec 11: An accountability appellate bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday commuted the sentence awarded to a former provincial health minister, Haleem Khattak, by an accountability court.
The bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Ijazul Hassan, reduced the sentence of seven years’ rigorous imprisonment to two years. The bench also reduced the fine of Rs56.805 million and US dollars 33,000 awarded by the trial court to Rs20 million.
The bench set aside the sentence of confiscation of properties and ordered that in case the appellant could not deposit the fine within a month then it should be realised from his properties.
The appellate court also set aside the conviction of the appellant on charges of the misuse of power. For misuse of authority, he was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment with fine of Rs500,000.
The trial judge, Syed Yahya Zahid Gillani, had convicted Mr Khattak on Jan 3, 2002, on two counts — possession of illegal assets and misuse of authority.
The appellate bench had reserved its judgment on Sept 16. The bench extended benefit of Section 282-B of the Criminal Procedure Code under which the period of detention of the appellant before his conviction should be counted in his prison term.
Senior advocate Qazi Muhammad Anwer had appeared for the appellant and argued that the evidence on record proved that the appellant had not acquired properties through illegal means. He added that the appellant had provided evidence about the means from which he had acquired his properties.
Advocates Arif Khan and Alamzeb Khan appeared for NAB and contended that the prosecution had proved its case against the appellant.
Mr Khattak was arrested by the NAB on July 29, 2000, and a reference was filed against him before the accountability court on Oct 5, 2000. During the trial a total of 127 witnesses were examined including 42 prosecution and 85 defence witnesses.
According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) the convict had served as Prosecuting Sub-Inspector (PSI), police in BPS-7 between 1970-76. He resigned the service and in 1979 contested election to a seat of district council, Kohat, becoming its chairman. In 1982 Karak was declared a district and the convict became its chairman. He remained the chairman till 1987. In 1993 he was elected member of the provincial assembly from PF- 32, Karak.
The convict served as provincial minister in cabinets of Pir Sabir Shah and Aftab Sherpao till 1996. A reference was also filed against him by the erstwhile Ehtesab Bureau charging him with carrying out illegal appointments in the health department, but he was acquitted in that reference by an accountability court more than three years ago.