Army officers, judges ‘fully liable’ under NAB laws: SC judge

Supreme Court Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said on Monday that members of the armed forces and judges of constitutional courts were “fully liable” under accountability laws.

In September, a three-judge bench, headed by former Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, scrapped amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999 last year and admitted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s petition challenging it.

The bench ordered to immediately restore all graft cases against public office holders, withdrawn after the amendments to the accountability law.

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 Yousuf 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.

Justice Shah did not agree with the two judges of the bench and penned a dissenting note. However, the dissenting note was not read out in court as per tradition.

In his note issued today, Justice Shah said that Imran’s petition was “meritless”.

The judge wrote that the petitioner’s counsel “utterly failed to clearly establish beyond any reasonable doubt that the challenged amendments in the NAB Ordinance are constitutionally invalid on the touchstone of ‘taking away’ or ‘abridging’ any of the fundamental rights”.

He said a question was also raised as to whether the judges of the constitutional court and the members of the armed forces enjoy exemption from the NAB Ordinance.

“We must, therefore, strongly shun the above generally professed opinion and be clear that members of Armed Forces and the judges of the constitutional courts are fully liable under the NAB Ordinance, like any other public servant of Pakistan,” the note read.