A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC), while accepting a petition of former Chairman Lahore Cantt Co-operative Housing Society (LCCHS) Brigadier Karrar Ali Agha (Retd) has quashed the reference against him pending before accountability court.
The petitioner, through his counsel Taffazul H Rizvi, asserted that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law could not be applied to an officer of armed forces without retrospective effect as under the Ehtesab Ordinance 1996 and Ehtesab Act 1997 officers of the armed forces were excluded, while they were added to NAB Ordinance in 1999 and the co-operative societies were brought into the ambit of NAB law in 2001 therefore under the same principle petitioner who already, stood retired in 1989 could not be trailed under the NAB law. The bench, however, observed that amendments in NAB law should not apply retrospectively relating to persons added later into the definition of holder of public office and that petitioner could not be trailed by NAB court relating to offences after the said date and not for the offences prior to that. The petition therefore has been accepted and the reference pending before the accountability court has been declared as illegal and void and quash.