ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has accepted the petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan against the amendments made to the NAB laws during the tenure of Shehbaz-led government resulting in the reopening of the NAB case again.
The amendments have been declared null and void. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial announced the verdict in open court. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah submitted a dissenting note.
On September 5, the three-member top court bench concluded the hearing in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s petition against the National Accountability (Amendment) Act, 2022, saying the court would announce a “short and sweet” verdict soon.
The two other members of the bench are Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.
At the last hearing, the PTI legal counsel, Khawaja Haris concluded his arguments before the bench. During his arguments, CJP Bandial remarked that the NAB had submitted its reasons for the references returned by the accountability following tweaks in the law till May. “The reasons for the withdrawal of the reference suggest that the law is biased,” he remarked and added the people whose references were returned have come on record.
CJP Bandial further said the first amendment was made to section 23 of the NAB law in May and the second in June and added references returned before May are still with NAB and that who will answer these questions on behalf of NAB? To this, Khawaja Haris told the court that many pending cases had been returned after the amendments.
Can crimes be eliminated by retroactive application of NAB amendments?” the CJP further asked, wondering what’s the purpose of applying the law to the past cases.
At this Justice Mansoor asked: “Does parliament not have the power to legislate retroactively? However, Justice Ahsan argued that the parliament is not allowed to do everything. “Parliament cannot eliminate crime by making a law applicable from the past,” he argued.
In a 2-1 verdict, the top court ordered to restore the corruption cases against public office-holders that were withdrawn after amendments made to the accountability laws.
Chief Justice Bandial and Justice Ahsan declared Imran’s plea to be maintainable while Justice Shah disagreed with the majority verdict, which suggests not just the corruption cases but also the inquiries and investigations be restored.
The court also declared some amendments to the NAB laws contrary to the Constitution and struck them down. These included the one which limited the 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 also directed that the cases withdrawn after NAB’s jurisdiction was limited to investigating cases involving an amount below Rs500m be fixed for hearing in the accountability courts.
The court also declared null and void the verdicts issued by the country’s accountability courts after the amendments made to the laws. It also directed NAB authorities to send the record to the relevant courts within seven days.
In June 2022, PTI chief Imran Khan had moved the top court against amendments made to the NAB ordinance under the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act 2022.
In recent hearings, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had repeatedly urged for a full court to hear the case, citing the frozen Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) law. However, CJP Bandial 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.
