SC stops accountability courts from issuing verdicts in NAB cases

The Sup­reme Court stopped on Tuesday accountability courts from issuing a final verdict in graft cases, it was reported.

Earlier, the bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and including Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi began hearing the first-ever intra-court appeals (ICAs) against its judgment that decla­r­ed amendments to the accountability laws as illegal.

The bench took up two ICAs — one filed by the federal government and the other by former Sui Southern Gas Company Limited managing director Zuhair Ahmed Siddiqui.

During the hearing, the federal government urged the apex court to adjourn the hearing till the week starting November 6 due to the unavailability of its counsel.

Subsequently, the SC adjourned the hearing till the detailed verdict on the law clipping the chief justice’s powers is released.

On October 17, the federal government filed a review petition challenging the SC’s decision to declare amendments made to the NAO 1999 null and void.

Background

In September, a three-judge bench, headed by former Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, scrapped amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999 last year and admitted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s petition challenging it.

The bench ordered to immediately restore all graft cases against public office holders, withdrawn after the amendments to the accountability law.

These include the Toshakhana reference against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Supremo Nawaz Sharif, PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, along with the LNG reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the rental power reference against former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.

Justice Shah did not agree with the two judges of the bench and penned a dissenting note. However, the dissenting note was not read out in court as per tradition.

Later, on October 30, Justice Shah said that members of the armed forces and judges of constitutional courts were “fully liable” under accountability laws.

In his note, Justice Shah said that Imran’s petition was “meritless”.

The judge wrote that the petitioner’s counsel “utterly failed to clearly establish beyond any reasonable doubt that the challenged amendments in the NAB Ordinance are constitutionally invalid on the touchstone of ‘taking away’ or ‘abridging’ any of the fundamental rights”.