Admiral Fasih Bokhari (retd) filed on Friday a review petition in the Supreme Court against its impugned order through which the apex court had on May 28 declared his appointment as Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) unlawful. A five-member bench led by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani in response to PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan's petition challenging Fasih Bokhari's appointment had held the appointment was without lawful authority.
Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, the counsel for Bokhari, filed a petition urging the court to review its decision in the matter and urged it to set aside the order as the apex court had also issued directives to federal government to fill the slot quickly.
Bokhari contended that the court's finding that his appointment was without lawful authority was devoid of any legal or logical basis as well as a clear cut violation of Section 6 of the NAB Ordinance.
He pleaded that chairman NAB could only be removed by the President of Pakistan, and the "President is not answerable to the Supreme Court in the exercise of this function."
He further submitted that in the instant case no question of public importance involving any fundamental right had arisen before the Supreme Court and in all fairness the court ought to have rejected the petition on that score alone.
"The impugned order was therefore passed in a matter regarding which the court had no jurisdiction," Bokhari submitted. He argued that there were apparent and clear errors of law floating on the face of the impugned order and the apex court was under a constitutional obligation to remove those errors at the earliest.
Bokhari prayed that through acceptance of the instant review petition the impugned order of May 28 be reviewed and set aside. The Supreme Court also issued a 27-page detailed judgement on the appointment of Admiral Fasih Bokhari (retd) as Chairman NAB.