SC delists Imran Khan’s case against NAB amendments

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has delisted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s case against recent amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance, ARY News reported on Monday.

According to details, the Supreme Court registrar has issued a notification, delisting Imran Khan’s case against recent amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance.

As per the notification, the former premier’s case against NAB amendments was scheduled for hearing on November 29. “However, the case has now been delisted due to Reko Diq and other cases,” it added.

In the last hearing conducted on November 17, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, discussing the amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law, said that the error was not in the law but in its misuse.

The Chief Justice told Imran Khan’s lawyer Khawaja Haris that he was right that corruption was a disease and accountability of corruption was necessary for constitutional governance, adding the economy was also affected due to this problem.

He said that the question before the court was where to draw the line that fundamental rights had been affected. The fault was not in the NAB law but in its misuse, he added.

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Earlier in May, the National Assembly approved amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 in a bid to curtail the powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)

The bill was tabled by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar who said that multiple amendments were made in the accountability Ordinance to clip the powers exercised by the accountability bureau.

Sharing details of the key amendments, he said that after fresh amendments, no arrests could be made before completion of the investigation process, and the suspect will have the right to obtain bail while 90-day remand is also abolished.

“90-day remand is for terrorists and we have now reduced the duration of remand to 14 days,” he said and added that no defamation campaign could be carried out unless the suspect is convicted in the case. The case could not be used for political purposes in the assets beyond means case, he said.