PTI leader Imran Khan contesting the most recent changes to anti-graft laws, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to produce 23 years’ worth of case documents, from June 1999 to June 2022.
After hearing the argument that the new law “violates fundamental rights,” the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah made up the three-member bench that issued the rulings.
The chief justice ordered NAB to provide information on all referrals that have been submitted thus far and on any investigations that have been completed since the revisions were made during the hearing today.
“Pakistan is home to various mafias […] I don’t want to name anybody because corruption exists everywhere in the globe, Justice Bandial said, adding that some revisions were of a “very serious nature” and that there were some flaws in the accountability laws.
What basic law was broken?
Which constitutional clause should be used as the foundation for the law’s nullification and voidability, Justice Shah questioned at the beginning of today’s hearing?
In response, Imran’s attorney Khwaja Haris resumed his arguments and said that the latest NAB modifications had made it very difficult to define benamidar.
He asserted that crooked politicians were at issue in the case. “Anything involving public funds falls under the heading of fundamental rights.Haris noted that benami was also an issue in cases involving phoney bank accounts and that matters relating to public officeholders fell under the scope of fundamental rights.
During one of the proceedings, the PTI attorney added that economic policies had to be written in a way that prevents them from impinging on fundamental rights.
Not creating laws is the SC’s responsibility.
“Is there any judicial precedence where the court has reinstated a previous statute on the petition of a citizen?” Justice Shah inquired at one point during the session. On a citizen’s petition, how may the court nullify the law passed by Parliament?
