ISLAMABAD: Sept 15 : The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday announced a decision reserved in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) amendments laws and ordered to restore all the cases of corruption of all public holders closed after amendments introduced by Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government.
The judgement was announced by a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s 2022 petition challenging amendments made to the accountability laws.
CJP Bandial and Justice Ahsan declared Imran’s plea to be maintainable while Justice Shah disagreed with the majority verdict, according to which not just the corruption cases, but also the inquiries and investigations were directed to be restored.
PDM government had introduced a set of amendments in NAB laws which were a clear case of getting NAW laws tailored to close the cases of corruption taken up by NAB against high profile individuals particularly the ruling elite. The Shahbaz government had literally turned NAB into a toothless body by introducing wishful amendments in its laws. For example, one of the amendments dropped the cases of corruption of over Rs 500 million from the ambit of NAB. This amendment had caught the attention of every Tom and Jerry who declared this amendment against the basic rule of the law of the land. Similarly , another amendment said that all those cases of NAB which were under trial and still unconcluded even after years of investigations be shut down. This amendment was purely a case of giving favour to ruling elite, in particular, top leadership of Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan People Party (PPP) as majority of top leadership of these two parties was facing corruption cases in NAB. This amendment provided a unique window for relief to PMLN and PPP top leadership including Mian Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and many others. Similarly, this amendment removed cases of mega corruption pending with NAB for years against former president Asif Ali Zardari and dozens of other his party leaders. This amendment also gave great relief to former prime minister , Shaukat Aziz, former president Pervez Musharraf and dozens of other untouchables.
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Pakistan is a land where untouchable always go scot-free after making their luck through unprecedented corruption. Shahbaz Sharif’s rule closed down the accountability process for all ruling elite and turned NAB into an entity which could exit only on papers.
With reopening of the cases closed down after amendments introduced by Shahbaz Sharif government , the ruling elite, in particular, top leadership of PMLN and PPP will again become questionable by NAB.