ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court bench hearing PTI plea against amendments to NAB Law on Wednesday observed that the new laws would promote systematic corruption as amendments have allowed provision of financial benefits that do not fall within the category of the NAB law.
The three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, heard PTI lawyer Khwaja Haris’ arguments on Imran’s plea, who claimed the new NAB laws “are a violation of fundamental rights”.
During the hearing on Wednesday, Imran’s counsel argued that as part of NAB amendments, the decision of the federal cabinet and working development parties had been excluded from the jurisdiction of accountability watchdog. He termed the new laws violation of the international conventions of anti-corruption.
Justice Bandial remarked that important decisions in the country are taken jointly by the federal cabinet and committees, and if all its members were to be deemed accused, “who would take the decisions then?”
“If the parliament starts doing everything, the decision-making process will slow down,” he said.
The CJP questioned the history of NAB law’s application, recalling that cases pertaining to LNG (liquified natural gas) contracts were lodged without proper examination of the facts. “Such contracts are prepared on the government level.”
The top judge said that several bureaucrats were made to serve jail time only to be later acquitted in the reference, adding that “sometimes things are not under the control of the bureaucracy”.
Talking about cases regarding assets beyond means, he said that such cases were considered a crime across the world. “We will review the NAB amendments in the context of international standards and local laws,” Justice Bandial observed.
Meanwhile, Justice Shah inquired if those who managed to come out scot-free from the NAB laws could be punished under any other law.
“There is no other law for misuse of power,” the PTI lawyer replied, adding that after the new amendments, it had become impossible to prove corruption of more than Rs500 million.
At one point during the hearing, Justice Ijazul Ahsan observed that the new laws would promote systematic corruption. “The amendments have allowed the provision of financial benefits that do not fall within the category of the NAB law.”
Here, Haris said that action against public officeholders could be taken only after proving the financial benefit they had gained. “A case won’t be merited even if the officeholder’s front man and children were misusing the powers.”
Subsequently, Justice Shah asked if the amendments would have been challenged if they were passed in 1999.
“A law is only challenged when defects are revealed in its implementation,” Haris said, adding that the new NAB laws were formed to benefit “certain people”.
He alleged that the first target of the incumbent government was to close its NAB cases. “Can we just let billions of rupees spent on NAB investigations go to waste?
“Do the judges of accountability courts have doubts that they can’t serve justice,” the PTI lawyer argued.
The court subsequently adjourned the hearing till October 18.
Imran’s Petition Against NAB Law Amendments
In his petition, Imran Khan has claimed that the amendments to the NAB law were made to benefit the influential accused persons and legitimize corruption.
The coalition government led by the PML-N had introduced 27 key amendments to NAB Law, but President Dr Arif Alvi did not accord his assent to these. However, the bill was adopted in a joint sitting of parliament and notified later.
The petition pleaded that the fresh amendments tend to scrap corruption cases against the president, prime minister, chief ministers and ministers and provide an opportunity to the convicted public office-holders to get their conviction undone.
