LHC commutes former government lawyer's sentence

LHC suspended her sentence in lieu of past Supreme Court decisions to commute sentences shorter than few years.

LAHORE: Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday suspended a three year jail term and ordered the release of a former government lawyer who had been convicted of fraudulently withdrawing her late father's pension.

Seema Munawar, a former additional advocate general Punjab and daughter of the LHC's Justice Munawar Elahi had been convicted by an accountability court last week. She illegally withdrew Rs3.9 million from her father‘s pension by showing herself as unmarried while she was in fact a divorcee.

Justice Malik issued the order following a petition by Munawar who had filed an appeal against her conviction and had expectations of being exonerated.

Justice Malik said that her appeal could not be affixed soon, and there was no expectation of it being affixed in the near future.

She prayed the court to suspend her sentence in light of past judgments of Supreme Court which allowed suspension of conviction if the sentence was of a few years.

The accountability court had awarded a three-year jail term to Seema along with fine of Rs3.9 million. Her sentence carried a further six-month imprisonment term in case she defaulted on her payment.

NAB, Punjab, had accused Seema of withdrawing her father’s pension amounting to Rs3.9 million illegally by showing her status as unmarried while she was a divorcee.