The Supreme Court has been asked to set aside the Lahore High Court (LHC) order to grant bail to the nephew of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Chaudhry Sugar Mills Limited (CSML) scam.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Additional Prosecutor General Accountability on Thursday filed an appeal under Article 185(3) of the Constitution against the LHC judgment dated February 18, 2020 to cancel ex-PM Nawaz Sharif's nephew Yousaf Abbas Sharif post-arrest bail
The NAB maintained there is every likelihood that Yousaf Sharif being an influential person will harass the witness, tamper with the prosecution evidence and/or might abscond to hamper the proceedings against him.
It said the co-accused Maryam Nawaz Sharif and his family members tried to fled/abscond from the country.
The appeal said that LHC observation that Yousaf Sharif (Respondent No 1) has not withdrawn any amount from the account of Chaudhry Sugar Mills, while on the other hand the record reveals that Rs1.33 billion were transferred from the account of CSML to his personal account, which fact has not been appreciated by the LHC in its true perspective, which resulted in grave miscarriage of justice and has prejudiced the case of the prosecution.
Yousaf Sharif was arrested on 8-2-2020. Being aggrieved of his arrest, he filed a writ petition in the LHC for bail, which was granted through order 18-02-2020.
The NAB additional prosecutor contended that the writ petition instituted on the touchstone of fundamental rights did not aver any hardship in any manner. The High Court erred in not appreciating the specific provision of ouster of jurisdiction (Section 9(b) of NAO) enacted in the Special Statute, wherein specifically it is promulgated that all offences of NAO, 1999 shall be non-bailable, and not withstanding anything contained in Section 426, 491, 497, 498, and 561-A or any other provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 or any law for the time being, not court shall have jurisdiction to grant bail to any accused of any offence under the NAB Ordinance.
It said that the Lahore High Court (LHC) erred to appreciate that the provisions under Section 9(a) read with Section 14(c) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 entail that an objective appreciation of the prosecution evidence had to be evaluated and the prosecution succeeded in establishing culpability upon the respondent no1.
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