LAHORE - The Lahore High Court yesterday barred the National Accountability Bureau from auctioning the property of a politician and sought reply from the bureau by October 20.
Hashim Babar, the convict who had been military land commissioner, had challenged the auctioneering of his property by NAB saying that he had already undergone the sentence he was awarded by a trial court for accumulating assets beyond his known sources.
A trial court had sentenced him of three years imprisonment along with fine of Rs 2,000,000 back in 2000.
The petitioner through his counsel Advocate Maqsooma Zahra Bukhari said that he had undergone his sentence but after so many years, the NAB officials were auctioneering his property which was unlawful. He said that the trial court imposed Rs 2,000,000 but the LHC reduced the fine to Rs 500,000.
He said but the NAB officials had given advertisement of his property in the local newspapers to auction it. He said that he came to know through newspapers that his property was being auctioned in Islamabad.
The counsel said section 11 of National Accountability Ordinance 1999 provided a set off provision and benefit should not be denied to the convict/petitioner against the confiscation of his property despite serving the full sentence.
The petitioner would be left to having been subjected to three different punishments for one offence despite that he had already experienced his full sentence. She said the petitioner was convicted for not being able to account for Rs1.4 million whereas the price of the property being auctioned was over Rs20 million. The counsel requested the court to restrain the NAB from auctioning the petitioner’s property.