Daily Times

The Supreme Court (SC) set October 31 to hear the federal government’s intra-court appeal against the judgment in the National Accountability Ordinance (NAB) amendments case, a private TV channel reported on Saturday.

According to the cause list, the plea will be heard by a five-member larger bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, and comprising Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi. On September 15, the SC in a majority decision had allowed former premier Imran Khan’s petition challenging amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 by the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) coalition government, and ordered the restoration of corruption cases against public office holders that were withdrawn following the tweaks

In October, a review petition by the federal government and Ministry of Law was filed that challenged the SC’s decision to declare amendments made to the NAO 1999 null and void. The petitioner, Abdul Jabbar, through his counsel Farooq H Naek, urged the court to set aside its verdict from September 15.

Earlier this month, another application for review was filed in the SC against its decision to declare the amendments made to the NAO null and void.

This plea was also filed by Advocate Farooq H Naek on behalf of former OGDCL managing director Basharat Mirza.

The application adopted the stance that the top court had announced the verdict against the National Accountability Court (NAB) amendments without hearing them.