LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Friday acquitted former IB DG Imtiaz Ahmad and co-accused Adnan Khwaja, former head of the OGDCL, in a NAB reference of illegal assets.

Barrister Maqsooma Zahra Bokhari represented Imtiaz Ahmad, a retired brigadier, and Advocate Khwaja Haris argued on behalf of Adnan Khwaja.

Brig Ahmad was sentenced to eight years by a Rawalpindi accountability court in 2002. Adnan Khwaja was sentenced to two years. Both were acquitted by courts while invoking presidential pardon through the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), however, after the Supreme Court struck down the ordinance their conviction stood restored.

Later, the SC had them arrested while hearing a suo motu case against non-implementation of SC judgment against the NRO. They were released on bail.

The counsel argued the bureau had failed to establish its case as no evidence of illegal source of income was produced before the trial court. They said it was a case of double punishment as the ACE had cleared the appellants in a similar case.

The bench accepted the appeals and acquitted both appellants.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play