ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court constituted a five-judge bench for hearing of intra-court appeal (ICA) against its judgment on National Accountability Ordinance amendments.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and comprising Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi will take the federal government’s appeal against its judgment on October 31, 2023.

A three-judge bench, headed by former Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on September 15 by a majority of 2:1 declared the amendments null and void and ordered the reopening of all corruption cases worth less than Rs500 million that were previously closed against political leaders from various parties and public office holders. The Court had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to return all case records to the relevant courts within seven days.

NAO amendments: SC gives govt 15 days to file appeal against its decision

The federal government on October 17 filed the review petition challenging the SC’s decision to declare amendments made to the NAO 1999 null and void.

Abdul Jabbar, Basharat Mirza, and Zubair Ahmed Siddiqui have also filed review petitions under Article 188 of the constitution. They have contended that they were neither a party to the proceedings in Constitutional Petition No 21 of 2022 before this apex court nor were issued notices, at any stage of the said proceedings. They stated they were directly and materially affected by the impugned judgment.

They have contended that the impugned judgment has failed to appreciate that the amendments carried out in the NAO, 1999 by the Parliament did not take away any offence from the grip of law, but have streamlined the same through channelling to the relevant authorities.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023