An accountability court on Saturday acquitted former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Moeen Aftab over lack of evidence in a corruption reference worth Rs 490 million.

Ex-PSM chief Moin Aftab Shaikh along with ex-director (commercial) Sameen Asghar has been accused of misuse of authority which caused Rs0.49 billion loss to the national exchequer.

Accountability court last month had acquitted three accused including the former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Moeen Aftab over lack of evidence in a corruption reference worth Rs 900 million.

PSM ex-chairman Moeen Aftab, director commercial Sameen Asghar and contractor Abdul Rasheed were nominated in the reference.

It is pertinent to mention here that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed nine corruption references against Moeen Aftab.

The anti-corruption unit had opened an investigation into the matter in 2010, which was later transferred to NAB over directives of the Supreme Court.

Moeen Aftab had been acquitted in three out of nine corruption references filed by the anti-corruption watchdog.