ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court dismissed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)’s appeal for the cancellation of Ahad Cheema’s, now special assistant to the caretaker prime minister, bail matter.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel and Justice Athar Minallah, on Friday, heard the appeal.

During the proceedings, the NAB’s Prosecutor General (PG), Sharif Janjua, withdrew the petition against Cheema. He said that the anti-graft body could not make its case when it re-investigated Cheema for corruption. The bench expressed annoyance over the prosecutor’s statement and dismissed the case.

Justice Minallah remarked that Cheema remained in jail for three years, but now the NAB is saying there is no case against him. Who is supposed to be held accountable if Cheema was confined in jail for three years?

He observed retired Brigadier Asad Munir, who was also acquitted posthumously by the courts after he ended his life due to the behaviour that had been adopted by the accountability bureau. “Why does NAB have this attitude towards people who are innocent,” he asked PG NAB.

The chief justice recalled how a chartered accountant acquaintance of his was called in by the NAB as a witness in a case where he was made to wait for five hours before being told to return at a later date. Justice Minallah said the NAB was “created by [Gen Pervez] Musharraf for political engineering — which is being proved by NAB, itself”. Someone should be held responsible for the NAB’s actions, he added.

Justice Jamal said he himself had been a prosecutor of the bureau; therefore, well aware of the system. “There are blue, yellow, and dark rooms in NAB (office) and their entire purpose is politics,” he further said. The judge noted that the NAB in Cheema’s case had asked for adjournment 24 times.

Justice Jamal also said that the NAB’s conduct was explained in detail in the high court order. But, the Bureau challenged the high court’s decision before the apex court. He also stated that the bureau should explain why it decided to increase the burden of the court’s caseload with this application. “Ahad Cheema was innocent that’s why no crime was proved against him,” he added.

Justice Mandokhel advised the accused to sue the accountability court after being acquitted. “Why does the NAB have unlimited powers to file cases against anyone,” he asked.

The NAB arrested Ahad Cheema on February 21, 2018, when he appeared before its investigation team in an inquiry into the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme.

Later, the NAB also initiated separate inquiries against him, one involving the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) City and assets beyond means. Cheema was granted bail in all three cases in April 2021.

Cheema was cleared of the charges by the NAB along with former Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, in the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme case on May 20.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023