A leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz filed an appeal against the objections raised by the Supreme Court Registrar Office on his petition, praying to set aside May 16, 2018 order. President PML-N Japan Noor Muhammad Awan on Tuesday filed the appeal under Order V, Rule 3 of Supreme Court Rules 1980, with SC Registrar Office order dated 16-05-2018. He contended that since the points raised could only be decided by this apex court on account of being importance of general public and fundamental rights; therefore, the petition was competent and maintainable under Article 184(3) of Constitution.
Awan stated that the petition was wrongly and illegally returned; therefore, he prayed that the order of the Registrar Office should be set aside and the appeal be accepted and fixed in the court for hearing. He argued that under Article 184(3) of Constitution, the Supreme Court is the proper forum for the redressal of grievance put forth by him. "The office objection is not sustainable in the eyes of law," the appellant said.
Amirullah Khan Khattak, Assistant Registrar (Civil-II) on May 16 had returned the petition seeking removal of chairman NAB due to issuance of press release regarding alleged involvement of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in money laundering. The registrar in his order stated that the petitioner has not approached any other appropriate forum available to him under the law for the same relief and returned the paper-book to the petitioner. "The applicant has also not provided any justification for not doing so," the order added.
Awan on May 12 had filed the petition under Article 184(3) of Constitution and made National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal as respondent. He had prayed that the issuance of fake press release may be inquired into as the same is damaging the reputation of political leader without any cogent material and also causing reckless/ruthless loss to the institution. The petitioner had further prayed that the proceedings against NAB chairman may be initiated for nepotism/favoritism/loss of fairness and he may be removed from his office due to partiality. He also demanded by NAB and the Chairman NAB Former Justice Javed Iqbal to tender unconditional excuse for this mis-happening in the interest of the justice.
The chairman NAB on 08-05-18 issued a press release that former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif transferred assets $4.9billion through money laundering to India. It was alleged in the press release that information was from World Bank's Migration and Remittance Book for the year 2016.
The petitioner said that the State Bank of Pakistan had denied this news item in its press release on 21-09-2016. He said before issuing the press release, the NAB should have interrogated the matter thoroughly. He said through the press release the independence of institution is damaged, malice is floated from the conduct, impartiality vanished and oath is defiled.