LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday dismissed an application of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking withdrawal of a Rs9 billion reference of sanctioning illegal loans against former president of Bank of Punjab (BoP) Hamesh Khan and others for lack of evidence. Judge Zubair Shahzad Kiyani turned down the bureau’s plea after hearing the arguments of senior lawyer Khwaja Harris on behalf of the BoP. The bank’s counsel argued that the application filed by the NAB was against the law. He pointed out that the chairman of the bureau did not have a mandatory consultation with the prosecutor general of the NAB. He said the reference was filed 17 years ago and 81 out of 86 witnesses had testified. He said many suspects had confessed to their crime while some others had opted for plea-bargain with the NAB after being declared guilty in the investigation. Advocate Harris questioned, “How previously held accused persons can be declared innocent now?” He alleged that the NAB had joined hands with the suspects. Rejecting the NAB request, the judge summoned the remaining prosecution witnesses for their testimony on Nov 26. Last week, a NAB prosecutor had told the court a fresh evaluation of old and new evidence was approved by the NAB chairman. He said the fresh scrutiny of the evidence found no offences of corruption and misuse of authority against the suspects. He said the NAB chief approved the withdrawal of the reference. Hamesh, the prime suspect of the 2007 reference, was arrested in the United States in 2009 by the Interpol and extradited to Pakistan next year. He had managed to flee the country despite being placed on the Exit Control List in 2008. He was indicted in 2012 and released on bail by the Supreme Court after an incarceration of over five years in 2015. The NAB had accused the former president of the BoP of issuing loans of billions of rupees on the basis of bogus documentations. Sheikh Afzal of Harris Steels Mills, another key suspect, and his son Harris were arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency in Malaysia in 2009.