Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The legal team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is drafting a review petition against the Supreme Court’s dismissal of its appeal for re-opening of Hudaibiya Paper Mills case that involves Rs 1.2 billion alleged money laundering by the Sharif family.

According to NAB sources, legal team of the anti-graft watchdog has started drafting the review petition and certified copies of the Supreme Court’s December 15, 2017, verdict in the Hudaibiya case have also been procured in this regard.

They said NAB’s legal team was awaiting the Supreme Court’s detailed judgment in the Hudaibiya case. However, the review petition will be filed within few days with a request for permission to amend the petition with respect to the detailed verdict if the detailed judgement is not issued in a few days.

On Dec 15, a three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel had dismissed NAB’s appeal to re-open the Hudaibiya case.

The one-line short order, read out by Justice Mushir Alam, had stated that “NAB’s appeal to reopen the case is dismissed and a detailed verdict will be issued later”. The court had observed that NAB had failed to justify three years delay in filing the appeal.

Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, involving money laundering charges against the Sharif family, was initiated by NAB in 2000 but was quashed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 2014. Later, NAB filed an appeal against the LHC decision of quashing the case in the apex court. The court noted that the statement on which the case was based had not been attached to the documents submitted by NAB in the court.

Published in Daily Times, December 19^th 2017.