Daily Times

The Supreme Court directed accountability courts on Tuesday to proceed with hearing graft cases but restricted them from issuing final orders.

A five-member bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa was hearing the government’s appeal against a majority judgment on September 15, declaring amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law as unconstitutional.

A similar appeal filed by former Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) managing director Zuhair Ahmed Siddiqui was heard alongside. The hearing was adjourned until the issuance of a detailed verdict in the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023. This was the first instance of intra-court appeals (ICAs) being taken up by the apex court in line with its short order on October 11, upholding the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023. The larger bench comprised Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi. During the proceeding, the bench wondered how the majority judges struck down the first and second amendments in the NAB law without examining the third amendment introduced in the legislation. At the outset of the hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan prayed the court to adjourn the hearing till next week as the government’s counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan was travelling and could not return in time for the hearing. The same had been submitted in a plea filed by Advocate of Record Anis Muhammad Shahzad, on behalf of the government, on October 30.

However, CJP Isa remarked that the court had also received other applications. Advocate Farooq H Naek, who appeared on behalf of Siddiqui, moved the court to suspend its September 15 verdict on amendments to the NAB law. During the hearing, the CJP inquired whether Naek was opposed to the SC verdict and the lawyer replied in the affirmative. The CJP then noted that Naek had submitted that according to the SC (Practice and Procedures) Act a five-member bench should hear the NAB amendments case and asked the lawyer to present arguments if he still maintained this position. “If you satisfy [the court] on this point, then we won’t proceed to the merits of the appeal.

In that case, we will restore the petitions against the NAB amendments and constitute a new bench,” remarked the CJP Isa while directing Naek to wait for the detailed SC order on the law curtailing the top judge’s powers.

When Naek urged the court to proceed with current appeals, CJP Isa observed that lawyer Khan had taken this ground in his application.

At this, Naek requested that he be made respondent in the case.

CJP Isa referred to Justice Shah’s detailed dissenting note on the SC verdict on NAB amendments and remarked that the petitioner could make changes to the plea given that the dissenting note was issued yesterday (Monday). Naek expressed apprehension that his client could potentially face a verdict under the NAB courts. The apex court observed that under the SC September 15 verdict all trials were to begin afresh and noted that the amendments to the NAB law had not done away with any prior corruption allegations but had simply sought to change the forum for accountability – with cases pertaining to amount and property under Rs500 million falling outside of NAB’s ambit.

During the proceeding, the court debated whether the case could proceed on merit observing that the status of the appeals could be changed based on the verdict issued in SC (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023. The court urged the petitioner to wait for a detailed order on the law curtailing the CJP’s powers. Later, the apex court adjourned the hearing till a detailed verdict on the SC law is issued. It rejected Naek’s plea to suspend the September 15 judgment on amendments to NAB law and restrained accountability courts from issuing a final verdict on corruption cases till a decision is reached on the current appeals.