LAHORE: A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday challenging its move to appoint a judge to oversee the proceedings of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references against former PM Nawaz Sharif and his family. Barrister Zafarullah Khan of the Watan Party filed the petition before the Lahore registry of the Supreme Court. The petitioner stated that the very purpose of the fair trial under Article 10-A of the constitution was impossible if a judge of the apex court continue to monitor the whole process from the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the accountability court. The applicant stated that there was no precedent that a Supreme Court judge had monitored a specific case pending before the lower courts. He stated that the NAB ordinance did not have any provision for monitoring of the court’s proceedings by a superior court judge. He stated that by adopting this way an aggrieved party could not get fair trial from a lower court. He stated that the monitoring of the trial court proceedings by a judge of the SC would obstruct the course of justice. He stated, “The judiciary of Pakistan, unfortunately, did not have an illustrious history when it came to standing up for democracy and constitutionalism or exhibiting allegiance to the scheme of institutional check and balances.” He requested the court to declare the appointment of Justice Ahsan as the monitoring judge in violation of the constitution. He further submitted that every citizen reserved the right to appeal a court’s decision and the higher judiciary should ensure that everyone was granted their basic rights. A few days ago, Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had appointed Supreme Court’s Justice Ijazul Ahsan to oversee the proceedings of the NAB references to be filed against the Sharif family and Ishaq Dar. Published in Daily Times, August 8th 2017.