Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Justice of Pakistan took suo moto notice on a note of Supreme Court (SC) Registrar containing observations of two-judge bench who passed an order in an accountability related case at Karachi Registry.

A day ago, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim had made detailed observations regarding National Accountability Bureau (NAB’s) appeal against an accountability court’s decision of refusing the remand of a private citizen in a fraud case.

The note stated that it has been observed by the Court (SC Karachi Registry) that the provisions of Section 25 (a), prima facie, was in conflict with the provisions of the Constitution, therefore, the vires of this provision needs to be examined.

“Once an accused who alleges to have plundered colossal sums of money deposits a portion of such amount determined by Chairman NAB voluntarily, that too, in installments, stands discharged from all his liability in respect of the matter or transaction in issue and goes back to join his job. This frequent exercise of powers of “Voluntary Return” by Chairman NAB has in fact multiplied corruption on the one side and defeated the object of the NAB Ordinance on the other side,” the two judge bench had observed in its order.

The bench further observed that the NAB Ordinance was introduced to eliminate the corruption of large sums of money while Provisions of Section 25 (a) were not meant to allow corrupt ‘public servants’ who get a clean chit from NAB authorities by paying portions of such alleged amounts, adding there is no yardstick provided in NAB Ordinance and the rules framed there under determining the amount of voluntary return.

The two-judge bench of SC sitting in Karachi Registry had directed the office to place the said order before the Chief Justice of Pakistan, for passing appropriate orders to treat this matter as Suo Moto petition under Article 184 (3), as prima facie, the issues raise questions of public importance having far reaching effects.

Taking notice of the issue, the Chief Justice of Pakistan has directed the office to fix the matter before the principal seat at Islamabad for the last week of September with notices to the Attorney General for Pakistan, Persecutor General NAB and Chairman NAB, as well as concerned authorities.