LAHORE, March 16: An ehtesab appellate bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction of former MNA Mian Muhammad Farooq. The bench had in April last year suspended Mian Farooq's punishment of seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs5 million, along with disqualification to hold a representative office for 10 years, slapped by a NAB court in 2001.
The former legislator from Faisalabad was freed from jail upon suspension of the punishment about one-and-a-half year ago. Justices Syed Tasaddaq Husain Jilani and Saeed Akhtar held that the prosecution failed to substantiate charges and the evidence produced in the case could not corroborate with allegations under which Mian Farooq was convicted.
As many as 36 charges had been levelled against Mian Farooq in the reference. One pertained to misusing his official and social status by selling a piece of land for a price much higher than the rate of purchase.
Mian Farooq purchased from the Lahore Development Authority a plot (No 113/G-III, measuring 420 square feet) at Jauhar Town for Rs96,000 and allegedly sold it for Rs1.5 million.
PLEA WITHDRAWN: Former MPA and Lahore district council's ex-chairperson Chaudhry Shaukat Ali on Tuesday withdrew his petition to the extent of objection plea after the LHC started considering it for the purpose of maintainability.
Shaukat Ali had gone missing after he was convicted by an accountability court. The court declared him a proclaimed offender with the instructions that he should be arrested as and when seen by a law enforcing agency. The former MPA pleaded in the writ petition that the NAB court orders against him should be withdrawn enabling him to surrender before the LHC.
The LHC registrar office raised the objection that he would be entitled to a legal relief only after he surrendered voluntarily. The office said the law required that a proclaimed offender should first surrender.
Shaukat challenged the office objection on the plea that it was the court and not the registrar's office to raise such an objection. The former MPA withdrew his plea when the court observed that it would first decide the nature of objection if it fell within the ambit of a judicial decision and then take up the question if it was maintainable.