NAB files review petition against SC dismissal of Hudaibiya case appeal
January 15, 2018
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed on Monday a review petition against the Supreme Court's judgment in the Hudaibia case.
The apex court, on December 15, 2017, had dismissed NAB's appeal to reopen the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case against the Sharif family.
The NAB, in its review petition, stated that the Supreme Court ruled on its appeal in three days, adding that a reinvestigation of the case cannot be stopped.
The petition also stated that the Supreme Court overlooked several materials provided by NAB.
In the review petition, spread over 25-30 pages, NAB has stated that it had decided, in a board meeting after April, 2017, to reopen the case on its own.
The Rs1.2 billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, involving money laundering charges against the Sharif family, was initiated by NAB in 2000 but quashed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 2014. The NAB had appealed the LHC decision in the Supreme Court.
The three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justices Qazi Faez Isa and Mazhar Alam Miankhel, that dismissed the appeal last year issued a detailed verdict this year.
In its detailed judgment, released on January 5, the bench noted that "the learned Judges of the High Court were justified to quash the Reference and once it was quashed the question of reinvestigation did not arise."
In the detailed judgment, the bench further noted that the respondents were "denied due process". That "the legal process was abused, by keeping the Reference pending indefinitely and unreasonably." Also observing that the "respondents were denied the right to vindicate themselves".
The detailed judgment acknowledged "the manner in which Mr. Imranul Haq, the learned Special Prosecutor, conducted the case. Though the brief entrusted to him was difficult he remained stoic and tenaciously persevered."
