ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) will resume hearing the case regarding the amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) on Tuesday (today).
The case involves the amendments made to the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act, 2022 by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government that came to power in April 2022.
A three-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, which has been hearing the case since July last year, has not suspended the operation of the National Accountability (Amendment) Act (XI of) 2022.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief and former prime minister Imran Khan filed the petition on June 25 last year under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, challenging the amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, through the National Accountability (Amendment) Act (XI of) 2022. The petitioner has made the federation and the NAB respondents.
The petition states; “By virtue of the impugned amendments, not only all the cases of the category mentioned in Section 4(2)(b) of the NAO, 1999, pending trial against, inter-alia the ministers, chief ministers, prime ministers, and a president stand virtually terminated.
The PDM-led government’s move to approve these amendments was heavily criticised by the PTI, which termed it an attempt to curtail the powers of the anti-graft watchdog.
In July 2022, the federal cabinet passed the National Accountability (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022, which further restricted the bureau’s role in tackling corruption cases involving Rs500 million and belw and revoked the president’s authority to appoint judges of the accountability courts. The previous hearing in the case was held on March 16, 2023.
During the last hearing, Chief Justice Bandial had said that the amendments made to the NAB Ordinance would slide Pakistan 100 points down in the world corruption index. Justice Ahsan had also remarked that the amendments were carried out only to benefit the very lawmakers who legislated on it.
Moreover, a report submitted by the NAB to the apex court revealed that the amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 2000 by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led coalition government ended up benefiting over 90 per cent of the cases, including high-profile ones, that NAB was dealing with, whether at the inquiry, investigation, or trial stage.
The NAB had submitted a report to the Supreme Court, pertaining to the details of the cases of public office-holders, including political leaders, which were to be affected under the new amendments to the NAB law.
