In a 2-1 verdict, the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday ordered to restore the corruption cases against public office holders that were withdrawn after amendments were made to the country’s accountability laws.
The reserved verdict was announced by a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s 2022 petition challenging amendments made to the accountability laws.
CJP Bandial and Justice Ahsan declared Imran’s plea to be maintainable while Justice Shah disagreed with the majority verdict, according to which not just the corruption cases but also the inquiries and investigations were directed to be restored.
The court also declared some amendments to the accountability laws to be contrary to the Constitution and struck them down.
These included one which limited the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) jurisdiction to cases involving over Rs500 million and one which allowed the accused to claim the amount of plea bargain deposited after being acquitted.
The court directed that the cases that were withdrawn after NAB’s was limited to investigating cases below Rs500m be fixed for hearing in accountability courts.
The court also declared null and void the verdicts issued by the accountability courts in light of the amendments made to the laws. The court directed NAB to send the record to the relevant courts within seven days.
In June 2022, the former premier had moved the apex court against amendments made to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance under the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act 2022.
The amendments made several changes to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, including reducing the term of the NAB chairman and prosecutor general to three years, limiting NAB’s jurisdiction to cases involving over Rs500 million, and transferring all pending inquiries, investigations, and trials to the relevant authorities.
In his petition, the PTI chief had claimed that the amendments to the NAB law had been made to benefit influential accused persons and legitimise corruption.
In recent hearings, Justice Shah had repeatedly urged for a full court to hear the case, citing the frozen Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) law.
However, CJP Bandial had opposed it, noting that his retirement was near and the matter had already been pending before the court for a considerable time — since at least July 19, 2022.
The SC had reserved its verdict in the case on September 5, after 53 hearings, with the members of the three-judge bench debating the power of parliament to enact legislation with retrospective effect. Making a reference to the judgement, the bench had said something “short and sweet” would be released soon.
The petition
In his petition, Imran had claimed that the amendments to the NAB law had been made to benefit the influential accused persons and legitimise corruption.
The coalition government led by the PML-N had introduced 27 key amendments to NAO, but President Dr Arif Alvi did not accord his assent to these. However, the bill was adopted in a joint sitting of parliament and notified later.
The petition pleaded that the fresh amendments tend to scrap corruption cases against the president, prime minister, chief ministers and ministers and provide an opportunity to the convicted public office-holders to get their convictions undone.
“The amendments to the NAO is tantamount to depriving the citizens of Pakistan of having access to law to effectively question their chosen representatives in case of breach of their duty towards the people of Pakistan,” the petition argued.
Moreover, the word “benamidar” has been re-defined, making it difficult for the prosecution to prove someone as a fictitious owner of a property, the petition argued.
CJP Bandial bids adieu
Earlier in the day, CJP Bandial had greeted the lawyers and reporters in the courtroom with a final “good to see you”.
The lawyers present in the courtroom praised the apex judge’s patience and expressed their well wishes for him.
Presiding over a hearing alongside Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Ayesha Malik, the CJP took the chance to reflect on his tenure as top judge.
Justice Bandial said he “always worked while keeping God’s appeasement in mind”, adding that it was his duty to do so.
Thanking journalists, he said he “welcomed criticism from the media”. While saying that criticism on verdicts was welcome, CJP Bandial emphasised, “When you criticise a judge, make sure that it is based on facts.”
The outgoing CJP noted that “black coats always remain connected to the bar” and said, “Now, God-willingly, I will meet the lawyers in the bar room.”
In response to the compliments and greetings from the lawyers, the CJP recited a verse from a poem and expressed his gratitude to God for giving him the chance to serve as the chief justice.__Dawn.com
