PESHAWAR, Oct 7: An accountability court on Saturday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for Peshawar city district Nazim Haji Ghulam Ali after he failed to appear in a corruption reference.

The court presided over by Miftauddin Khan fixed Oct 18 for next hearing and directed that the accused should be positively produced on next date.

Mr Ali, who is a prominent leader of Jamiat-i-Ulema- i-Islam (F), and 12 of his associates including his father and three brothers had been indicted in the present reference filed against them by the National Accountability Bureau.

The NAB has charged Mr Ali, who remained a councillor of Peshawar Municipal Corporation on various occasions, of possessing assets to the tune of Rs305 million, which is disproportionate to his known sources of income, a crime punishable under section 9 and 10 of the NAB Ordinance 1999.

He was arrested on April 13, 2001, and was later released after the Supreme Court granted him bail.