SC restores NAB Law and accepts the Federal Government’s appeal on Sep 15 verdict

NAB Law and the previous verdict

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Laws deal with the legal cases in Pakistan involving NAB Amendment Cases. PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) founder Imran Khan filed a petition in 2022 against the NAB Law to make changes to it. He challenged the amendments while attending his hearing through a video call link from Rawalpindi. His petition was accepted in September 2023 in the three-member bench of CJP (Chief Justice Of Pakistan) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah. It was a 2-1 verdict where CJP Bandial and Justice Ahsan declared Imran Khan’s plea on the other hand Justice Shah made a disagreeing statement that if parliament could enact the NAB law then it could also be amended or repealed.

Today, the five-member bench CJP headed by Isa including Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan, Athar Minallah, and Hasan Azhar Rizvi have accepted the federal government’s appeal on changes in the Sep 15 verdict and NAB law. In the 2-1 verdict, the order was directed to return records of cases against public office holders to the respective forums within seven days and it also accepted Imran Khan’s plea which violated Article 9, Article 14, Article 24, and Article 25 of the constitution. All these violations against the NAB law and the Constitution of Pakistan have been restored by a 3-0 verdict of CJP headed by Isa.

“The chief justice and the judges of the Supreme Court are not the gatekeepers of parliament”, he added.

They also pointed out that the Sep 15 verdict restored the corruption cases against the public representatives who benefited from the changes in the NAB law which was supposed to file cases against them.