SC to hear Imran Khan’s plea against NAB amendments today

• PTI challenged NAB Ordinance 1999 amendments underneath Rule 6 of SC Guidelines 180. 
• Says NAB regulation amendments benefited PM Shehbaz, Hamza Shehbaz and two ex-PMs
• Says giant variety of references pending with accountability courts returned to NAB. 

The Supreme Courtroom will resume the listening to on PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s plea towards the amendments made to the Nationwide Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, right this moment (Tuesday).

A 3-member bench of the apex courtroom, headed by Chief Justice Umer Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsen and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, will hear the plea.

PTI, by its lawyer Khwaja Haris, had filed an utility underneath Rule 6 of SC Guidelines 180 for the inserting on report of paperwork within the petition, difficult the NAB Ordinance 1999 amendments.

It knowledgeable the apex courtroom that the amendments to NAB regulation have benefited Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz, former prime ministers Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani and Raja Pervez Ashraf, the incumbent speaker of the Nationwide Meeting, and Senator Saleem Mandviwalla.

The plea

The counsel said within the plea that, since Sept 1, 2022, numerous references pending with the accountability courts all through Pakistan have been returned to the Nationwide Accountability Bureau (NAB) within the mild of the amendments which have been impugned within the titled petition, the accountability courts not have jurisdiction to attempt these circumstances.

He submitted that the references thus returned pertain to offences falling inter alia underneath Sections 9(a)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi),(ix),(x),(xii), of the NAO, 1999, and have been so returned by invoking provisions of inter alia sections 1(2), 2, 4(a)-(g), 5(o) and 9(a)(vi) of NAO. 1999.

“Moreover, there are numerous references (greater than 90 % of pending references, if not all) that are additionally hit by the impugned amendments, however haven’t but been disposed of returned by the accountability courts,” the counsel submitted

He additional knowledgeable the courtroom that there are quite a few (if not all) pending enquiries and investigations which have been or are within the strategy of being equally wound up within the mild of the provisions launched to the NAO by the impugned amendments.

Furthermore, he additionally submitted that ex-president Asif Ali Zardari has not too long ago sought an extended adjournment from the Accountability Courtroom, No. III, Islamabad, as he intends to file a contemporary utility ‘in pursuance of the newly amended NAB Act, 2022’, along with an earlier utility filed by him underneath the beforehand amended regulation.

The counsel knowledgeable the courtroom that through the monetary years 2018–19, 2019–2020, and 20–21, the NAB had, when it comes to incurring bills for inquiring into, investigating, and prosecuting references pertaining to offences falling underneath the NAO, 1999, utilised a sum of Rs3.9, 9.0, and 5.1 billion, respectively, i.e. a complete of Rs18 billion for submitting and prosecuting these circumstances.

And now, pursuant to the impugned amendments to the regulation, this whole sum of Rs18 billion of public cash has gone down the drain, whereas, concurrently, all such references pending towards the previous and incumbent holders of public workplace, and their associates, aiders and abettors, in addition to personal individuals, on fees of misappropriation of a whole lot of billions of rupees belonging to the folks of Pakistan, have been delivered to naught”, the counsel submitted

The PTI additional submitted that the majority of the references filed by the NAB and which had been or are pending with the accountability courts are in respect of offences underneath sections 9(a)(v), 9(a)(vi) and 9(a)(ix) of the NAO, 1999, and these are the offences which have been radically affected, each substantively and as regards conditions for proving the identical, by the impugned amendments.

And this has primarily been completed by amending or substituting sections 2, 4(a) to 4(g), and 4(3), 5(b), (c), (da), (o), and (q), 9(a) (v) and (vi), 9(a) (vii), 9(a) (ix), 14, 16, 19, and 25(e), provisos to 25 (b), 26 and 31-A of the NAO, 1999.