NAB amendments: SC bars courts from final decisions until next hearing

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday barred the accountability courts from making final decisions in corruption cases till the next hearing of the review plea in the NAB amendments case, ARY News reported.

On September 15, the Supreme Court of Pakistan struck down amendments made to National Accountability Bureau laws as it announced its reserved verdict on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman’s plea.

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, comprising Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi heard the federal government’s intra-court appeal against the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) law amendments verdict.

At the outset of the hearing, CJP asked were all amendments nullified. The bench was told that a few sections of the first and second amendments in the NAB ordinance were nullified, while the third amendment also became ‘ineffective’ due to the court’s order.

Justice Minallah asked how the law became ‘ineffective.’ “How can the first two amendments be nullified without reviewing the third,” the SC judge asked.

CJP Qazi Faez Isa in his remarks said the SC bench should have nullified three amendments if it wanted to.

The SC rejected Farooq H Naek’s plea to nullify the three-member bench verdict in the case and served notices to the respondents including the PTI chairman, AGP, NAB, provincial advocate generals, and others.

The court further said the next hearing of the plea against NAB amendments case verdict will be heard after the issuance of the detailed verdict in the Practice and Procedure Act case.

The SC in its short order stopped accountability courts from making any final decisions in corruption cases