President National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Saeed Ahmed on Wednesday filed an application before the Accountability Court seeking his acquittal from a corruption reference. The NBP president was nominated as a co-accused in the supplementary reference filed against Dar by National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Ahmed, through his counsel Hashmat Habib, filed an application before Accountability Court judge Muhammad Bashir under section 265-D of the Criminal Procedure Code seeking acquittal of the accused from the reference as there is absolutely no probability of conviction of the applicant of any allegation as the charges do not attract any of the provision of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999.
The petition stated that under the section 265-D, a judge can acquit an accused at any stage of trial. So far four witnesses have recorded their statements and there is not a single word against the accused neither in examination-in-chief nor in cross-examination. It says the prosecution has leveled three allegations under different sub-sections of Section 9 of the NAO 1999 which is related to corruption, corrupt practices, abatement and misuse of authority.
The court has already dropped the charge of corruption and corrupt practices against the accused. According to the petition, the allegations leveled against the NBP president pertaining to the misuse of authority could not be substantiated by any witness that the prosecution had produced so far, adding that this is a case fit to be discharged and the applicant is entitled to an acquittal." During the hearing, defense counsel Qazi Misbah completed the cross-examination of witness Masood Al-Ghani, a bank official, in the supplementary reference field against Dar. The NAB named Saeed Ahmed, Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi as co-accused in the case. Mehmood and Rizvi are directors of a company owned by Dar.