NAB amendments: SC accepts appeals against previous ruling

The Supreme Court (SC) accepted on Friday a set of appeals against the court’s verdict, which struck down changes to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa announced the reserved verdict on the federal and provincial governments’ pleas, challenging the apex court’s September 15, 2023 majority 2-1 judgment, which was announced by a bench led by former chief justice Umar Ata Bandial.

Amendments were made to the accountability laws by the then-Pakistan Democratic Movement-led (PDM) government in 2022.

They included reducing the term of the NAB chairman and prosecutor general to three years, limiting NAB’s jurisdiction to cases involving over Rs500 million, and transferring all pending inquiries, investigations and trials to the relevant authorities.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan had challenged the amendments in the top court, claiming that the changes to the NAB law were made to benefit the influential accused persons and legitimise corruption.

The apex court after hearing the case for about three months, annulled tweaks to the NAB Ordinance and ordered the reopening of graft cases against public office holders that were closed down following the amendments.

These include the Toshakhana reference against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Supremo Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, along with the LNG reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the rental power reference against former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.