NAB HQ and AGP office: UK court allows Broadsheet to serve freezing orders inside Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A British court has allowed Broadsheet LLC to serve freezing orders inside Pakistan on National Accountability Bureau (NAB) headquarters and Attorney General for Pakistan Office after the top anti-graft body’s lawyers in UK failed to respond to court orders despite passage of several weeks. According to reports, Broadsheet LLC had approached The UK High Court of Justice with a plea that previous lawyers of NAB at law firm Allen & Overy were not responding to correspondence and the latest court orders.

Reports said the argument was that Allen & Overy have gone off the record and are no more instructed by the NAB, which also implies that Pakistan government does not currently have legal representation in the ongoing litigation brought by Broadsheet LLC’s Kaveh Moussavi.

They said that the latest report issued by Master Davison of the Commercial Court, which orders that “Broadsheet LLC has permission to serve the interim order, the application notice, and all other documents filed in support of the claimant’s application for the interim order on the defendants out of the jurisdiction at the following addresses, such service to be effected in accordance with the State Immunity Act 1978 and CPR 6.44(2)”:

a. First Defendant: Office of the Attorney General, 3rd Floor, Supreme Court Building, 44000 Constitution Avenue, Islamabad, Pakistan.

b. Second Defendant: Attaturk Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad, Pakistan.”

The order further says that, “Pakistan may, if so advised, file and serve on Broadsheet LLC written evidence stating any grounds of objection to the court making a final third party debt order not less than 3 days before the hearing.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021