The Supreme Court (SC) scrapped on Friday amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999 last year and ordered to restore the corruption cases against public office holders.
A three-judge bench, headed by CJP Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah announced the reserved verdict, which included restoring graft cases against public office holders that were closed down following the amendments.
CJP Bandial and Justice Ahsan declared Imran’s plea to be maintainable while Justice Shah disagreed with the majority verdict, according to which not just the corruption cases but also the inquiries and investigations were directed to be restored.
The apex court struck down some amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999.
The court also decided that some changes to the accountability laws were unconstitutional and invalidated them.
These included one that restricted the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) authority to cases involving more than Rs. 500 million and one that permitted the accused to recover the sum paid as part of the plea agreement after being found not guilty.
The court ordered that accountability courts be assigned to hear cases that were withdrawn after NAB’s authority was reduced to cases involving less than Rs 500 million.
In light of the legislation changes, the court also ruled that the decisions reached by the accountability courts were invalid. NAB was given a seven-day deadline by the court to deliver the record to the appropriate courts.
Last year in May, the National Assembly had passed bills to abolish election reforms made by PTI when it was in power, giving overseas Pakistanis the right to vote, and made amendments to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws.
Imran filed a petition in June, 2022, challenging changes in various provisions of the NAO which were made allegedly to benefit influential accused persons and legitimise corruption of those whose case were pending before the Accountability Courts.
