A Division Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday returned to the Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui a plea for bail moved on behalf of former Federal Minister Asif Ali Zardari with the request that it should be assigned to a bench constituted afresh for disposal.
The bench comprising Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi acted after the National Accountability Bureau lawyers said that bench could not hear the bail request as one of its members had earlier presided over the trial of Zardari in another case, a couple of years ago.
The reference was to Justice Abbasi who had sat on an Ehtesab Bench as a member of the Lahore High Court that had tried Zardari and his wife, Benazir Bhutto
Senator Farooq Naek representing Zardari, however, had no objection to the presence of Justice Abbasi in the Supreme Court bench but the judge himself expressed his inability to hear the case for the reasons pointed out by the NAB lawyers.
The Bench therefore, returned the case to the Chief Justice suggesting that he should appoint another bench to hear the petition.
Asif Zardari is seeking bail in the case based on a reference from NAB that accuses him of impersonation to import a 1993 model BMW costing Rs 5.3 million, which is listed as a luxury car and hence its import is banned. The case is pending before the Accountability Court at Rawalpindi.