ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted 15-day time to the federal government to file its appeal against its decision against the amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.
A three-judge bench, headed by former Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on September 15 by a majority of 2:1 declared the amendments null and void and ordered the reopening of all corruption cases worth less than Rs500 million that were previously closed against political leaders from various parties and public office holders.
The SC had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to return all case records to the relevant courts within seven days.
Amendments to NAO: SC urged to review its judgment
The Attorney General’s Office said the extension has been sought to add additional grounds in the appeal against the judgment issued by SC on September 15 pertaining to the case. “There is now a right of appeal under the Practice and Procedure Act,” it added.
The time limit for filing a review petition against the apex court’s judgment expired on October 15, therefore, the government had filed an application seeking 15 more days for filing an appeal. The government has asked the court to annul the decision against the amendments.
Abdul Jabbar and Basharat Mirza, through senior advocate Farooq H Naek, last week filed the review petitions under Article 188 of the constitution. Zubair Ahmed Siddiqui on Tuesday filed the review petition.
They contended that they were neither a party to the proceedings in Constitutional Petition No21 of 2022 before this apex court nor were issued notices, at any stage of the said proceedings. They stated they were directly and materially affected by the impugned judgment. The petitioner stated he had been condemned unheard.
They have contended that the impugned judgment has failed to appreciate that the amendments carried out in the NAO, 1999 by the Parliament did not take away any offence from the grip of law, but have streamlined the same through channeling to the relevant authorities.
The impugned judgment made the National Accountability (Amendment) Act, 2023 redundant, as the same provided the mechanism for all the cases which got affected by the National Accountability (Amendment) Act, 2022 and the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act, 2022.
Through the Impugned judgment, with much respect, this honourable Court has assumed the position of being a “legislator” and “policy maker”, which is beyond the scope of powers of this Court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.
Section 3 of the Second Amendment pertains to Section 5(o) of the NAB Ordinance which set the minimum pecuniary threshold of the NAB at Rs.500 million.
The Parliament has set this limit in line with established principles of “intelligent differentia”, which in the instant case is the defining category of “mega corruption”. The impugned judgment on the one hand agreed to a limit of Rs100 million but refuse to accept the will of the people (the Parliament) to set the same at Rs500 million.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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