Top court acquits former PTB official in NAB case after sentence served

• Supreme Court sets aside NAB conviction against PTB ex-official.
• Bench says no financial benefit proved for Hussain or family.
• PTB cashier confessed to forging cheques, embezzling millions.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has acquitted former Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) deputy secretary Sardar Hussain in a corruption case filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), setting aside earlier convictions from the trial and high courts.

A three-member bench led by Justice Athar Minallah issued a 14-page detailed judgment, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove corruption charges against Hussain.

In its verdict the top court bench stated: “In view of the foregoing, we are sanguine that the case against the petitioner has not been proved and that the offence under section 9(a)(vi) of the NAO, 1999 has not been made out.”

“The petitioner’s case is one that merits acquittal and consequently, the impugned judgments of the Trial Court and the High Court are set aside by extending the benefit of doubt in the petitioner-Sardar Hussain’s favour. He is acquitted from all the charges,” read the verdict.

It is pertinent to mention here that the petitioner has been released from jail after having served out his sentence.

The court observed that neither he nor his family had benefited financially, while a PTB cashier admitted forging bogus cheques and embezzling funds.

The ruling stated that Hussain, who had already completed his prison sentence, could not be held responsible for the embezzlement.

Internal inquiries had also exonerated him, while the cashier, Aleem Mehmood, confessed to falsifying records and misappropriating millions from PTB accounts.

In 2015, an accountability court sentenced Hussain to three years in prison and fined him Rs4.5 million over alleged financial irregularities at PTB.

The Peshawar High Court upheld the conviction in 2018, though the fine was reduced. Hussain filed an appeal in the Supreme Court the same year.

The apex court ruled that the lapses attributed to Hussain amounted only to procedural irregularities and not corruption under the National Accountability Ordinance.

Extending him the benefit of doubt, it acquitted him of all charges and annulled the previous verdicts.