SC Justice Asif Saeed refuses to hear Hudaibiya Paper Mills case

Supreme Court (SC) Justice Asif Saeed Khosa recused himself on Monday from a three-judge bench constituted to hear the trial regarding National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) plea to reopen Hudaibiya Paper Mills case against the Sharif family.

Justice Khosa refused to hear the trial saying that he has received the case by the registrar by mistake. The three-member bench included Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel. The bench has now been dissolved and now a new bench will be formed.

Justice Khosa is the judge who gave a verdict of 14 paragraphs regarding Hudaibiya Paper Mills in the Panama Papers. In the verdict, he had ordered NAB to reopen the case.

On September 20, NAB pleaded SC to dismiss Lahore High Court decision to end the Hudaibiya Paper Mills and reopen the case as new evidence had been exposed in the Panama case joint investigation team report.

Deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, their mother Shamim Akhtar, younger brother late Abbas Sharif, Nawaz's children, Maryam and Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Hudaibiya Paper Mills Ltd and others have been named as respondents in the appeal.