ISLAMABAD, Oct 31 (APP): The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday barred the accountability courts from taking final decisions on NAB references and adjourned hearing of the appeal against the verdict regarding NAB law amendments.
A five-member larger bench of the top court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi heard the intra-court appeal against the judgment about amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law.
During the course of proceedings, the CJP remarked that if the court should have declared all the three amendments null and void. The third amendment came in May, and six hearings were held after that, he said, adding that the three NAB amendments were directly interconnect.
He noted that the Federal Government had raised a point of the ‘Practice and Procedure Act’ in the appeal, which if it wanted to pursue then it would be decided afresh by a 5-member larger bench, and the petitions against the NAB law amendments verdict would be considered as pending.
Lawyer Saad Hashmi said that the point of ‘Practice and Procedure Act’ was also raised earlier.
The CJP said that no one had been acquitted from the NAB references as only the forums had been changed.
He said that the court was facing a technical problem on the point that the detailed decision of the ‘Practice and Procedure Act’ case had not yet been announced. It would be appropriate to wait for the detailed verdict, he added.
Farooq H. Naek requested the bench to suspend the decision of NAB law amendments case, as in case of delay the accountability courts would start deciding the references.
The CJP remarked that the court was not suspending the verdict regarding NAB law amendments, however, it would bar the accountability courts from taking the final decisions.
The instant case would be fixed for hearing after the detailed judgment in the SC Practice and Procedure Act case was announced, he added.
Earlier, the Attorney General for Pakistan prayed the court to adjourn the case as the Federation’s lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan was unable to appear today due to his visit abroad.
To a court’s query, Advocate Saad Hashmi said that some clauses of the first and second NAB amendments had been terminated in the judgment.
Lawyer Farooq Naek said that the third amendment in the NAB law was introduced on May 25, but it also became ineffective due to the judgment of the top court.
Further hearing of the case was then adjourned.
