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11-11-2017, 09:22 AM
https://www.thenews.com.pk/assets/uploads/akhbar/2017-11-11/l_243483_090619_print.jpg ISLAMABAD: The fixation of hearing of an appeal regarding the Sharif family’s Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Supreme Court fifty days ago was announced a day after Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar posed a question if the criticism of the judges being made outside was patriotism.
The top judge’s observation was a thinly veiled response to the severe reaction of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to the judgment on his review petition against the July 28 verdict in which he had been disqualified.
“The patience being displayed by the judges with regard to what was being said outside should be lauded. Their stature would not be affected by this criticism and they would render their services in accordance with law and the Constitution,” the chief justice remarked, and questioned as to what could be a higher position than the one they were holding now and why they would be unfair in their work.
A three-member bench that will launch proceedings on the appeal on Monday is headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the senior most judge after the chief justice, who had also presided the five-judge panel, which had decided the Panama case. The views and lack of confidence expressed by Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N in him for umpteen times is no secret that surfaced after the original April 20 verdict in the Panama case. The Godfather title that the judge had accorded to Nawaz Sharif in his judgment was particularly taken exception to in harsh words.
Justice Khosa’s opinion on ordering re-investigation of the Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited case became clear in his remarks during lengthy hearings in the Panama case. Both the other judges of the new bench - Justice Dost Mohammad and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel – hail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who were not part of the Panama panel.
It will be instructive to have a look at certain facts leading to the submission of the appeal in the apex court by the NAB on September 20. One, the July 28 final order of the court did not issue any direction to the NAB to appeal against the March 11, 2014 ruling of the Lahore High Court (LHC) that had quashed a reference about the Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited. Rather, the judgment had left it to the NAB to take a decision on filing the appeal as it is clear from the words “if and when” occurring in the order.
In paragraph 12, the July 28 ruling said that Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer’s argument that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) overstepped its authority by reopening the case of Hudabiya Paper Mills when its reference was quashed by the LHC does not appear to be correct as the JIT has simply made recommendations in this behalf which can better be dealt with by Supreme Court if and when an appeal before it, as has been undertaken by the NAB Special Prosecutor, is filed and a view to the contrary is taken by this court.
Two, outgoing NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman had earned immense ire of some judges of the previous Justice Khosa led five-member bench when he had told them pointblank that his organization would not file an appeal against the LHC decision on the basis of the opinion of his prosecutor general. Then, one of the justices had remarked that the NAB became dead today.
Three, in the absence of a direction in the July 28 order to challenge the LHC verdict, the NAB decided not to approach the apex court in this connection, sticking to its old stance that no appeal would be filed.
Four, however, fifty-two days after the July 28 ruling the NAB prosecutor general suddenly submitted the appeal before the apex court on September 20. Five, generally the registrar returns the appeals which are time-barred, after having been filed after some three years, but in this case, no such objection was raised and the plea was instantly held in order for hearing.
Six, a week before the NAB submitted the plea, a story appearing in this newspaper stated that the corruption buster was under tremendous pressure to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Sharifs in the Hudabiya Paper Mills case. “Early this week a meeting was held in an office in Islamabad where a few senior officials of NAB were invited. They were reprimanded as to why the NAB has not yet prepared the appeal. Venue and other details of the meeting including the names of those who were present there are not being disclosed,” the report said.
The NAB denied any such pressure, but did not explain as to why it took fifty-two days to file the appeal after the July 28 final order of the court. The appeal implicates Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza, Nawaz Sharif, his deceased brother Abbas Sharif, his son Hussain, his daughter Maryam, his mother Shamim Akhtar and Sabiha Abbas (widow of Abbas Sharif).
In its appeal, the NAB sought reversal of the LHC decision and an order for reinvestigation into Hudabiya Paper Mills scam as per the new evidence which, it claimed, surfaced in the JIT report. It argued that the LHC referee judge was not competent to set aside the LHC findings in which the NAB had been allowed to re-initiate investigations.
Two LHC judges, forming part of a bench, had quashed the reference on a plea filed by the Sharif family but one of them had also recommended reinvestigation by the NAB. The LHC then appointed a referee judge, who has also quashed the reference on March 11, 2014 on the grounds that if a re-investigation was allowed, it would provide an opportunity to the investigators to pad up lacunas.
The NAB had then decided not to challenge in the Supreme Court the LHC decision. Nawaz Sharif was not named in the interim reference in an accountability court filed in March 2000. However, in the final reference approved by the then NAB chairman Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool, he was also included in it.
The Hudabiya Paper Mills case was initiated on the basis of an April 25, 2000 confessional statement from Ishaq Dar, wherein he allegedly admitted his role in laundering money to the tune of $14.86 million on behalf of the Sharifs through fictitious accounts. Dar has always asserted that the statement was taken under duress and coercion.
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The top judge’s observation was a thinly veiled response to the severe reaction of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to the judgment on his review petition against the July 28 verdict in which he had been disqualified.
“The patience being displayed by the judges with regard to what was being said outside should be lauded. Their stature would not be affected by this criticism and they would render their services in accordance with law and the Constitution,” the chief justice remarked, and questioned as to what could be a higher position than the one they were holding now and why they would be unfair in their work.
A three-member bench that will launch proceedings on the appeal on Monday is headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the senior most judge after the chief justice, who had also presided the five-judge panel, which had decided the Panama case. The views and lack of confidence expressed by Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N in him for umpteen times is no secret that surfaced after the original April 20 verdict in the Panama case. The Godfather title that the judge had accorded to Nawaz Sharif in his judgment was particularly taken exception to in harsh words.
Justice Khosa’s opinion on ordering re-investigation of the Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited case became clear in his remarks during lengthy hearings in the Panama case. Both the other judges of the new bench - Justice Dost Mohammad and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel – hail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who were not part of the Panama panel.
It will be instructive to have a look at certain facts leading to the submission of the appeal in the apex court by the NAB on September 20. One, the July 28 final order of the court did not issue any direction to the NAB to appeal against the March 11, 2014 ruling of the Lahore High Court (LHC) that had quashed a reference about the Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited. Rather, the judgment had left it to the NAB to take a decision on filing the appeal as it is clear from the words “if and when” occurring in the order.
In paragraph 12, the July 28 ruling said that Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer’s argument that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) overstepped its authority by reopening the case of Hudabiya Paper Mills when its reference was quashed by the LHC does not appear to be correct as the JIT has simply made recommendations in this behalf which can better be dealt with by Supreme Court if and when an appeal before it, as has been undertaken by the NAB Special Prosecutor, is filed and a view to the contrary is taken by this court.
Two, outgoing NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman had earned immense ire of some judges of the previous Justice Khosa led five-member bench when he had told them pointblank that his organization would not file an appeal against the LHC decision on the basis of the opinion of his prosecutor general. Then, one of the justices had remarked that the NAB became dead today.
Three, in the absence of a direction in the July 28 order to challenge the LHC verdict, the NAB decided not to approach the apex court in this connection, sticking to its old stance that no appeal would be filed.
Four, however, fifty-two days after the July 28 ruling the NAB prosecutor general suddenly submitted the appeal before the apex court on September 20. Five, generally the registrar returns the appeals which are time-barred, after having been filed after some three years, but in this case, no such objection was raised and the plea was instantly held in order for hearing.
Six, a week before the NAB submitted the plea, a story appearing in this newspaper stated that the corruption buster was under tremendous pressure to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Sharifs in the Hudabiya Paper Mills case. “Early this week a meeting was held in an office in Islamabad where a few senior officials of NAB were invited. They were reprimanded as to why the NAB has not yet prepared the appeal. Venue and other details of the meeting including the names of those who were present there are not being disclosed,” the report said.
The NAB denied any such pressure, but did not explain as to why it took fifty-two days to file the appeal after the July 28 final order of the court. The appeal implicates Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza, Nawaz Sharif, his deceased brother Abbas Sharif, his son Hussain, his daughter Maryam, his mother Shamim Akhtar and Sabiha Abbas (widow of Abbas Sharif).
In its appeal, the NAB sought reversal of the LHC decision and an order for reinvestigation into Hudabiya Paper Mills scam as per the new evidence which, it claimed, surfaced in the JIT report. It argued that the LHC referee judge was not competent to set aside the LHC findings in which the NAB had been allowed to re-initiate investigations.
Two LHC judges, forming part of a bench, had quashed the reference on a plea filed by the Sharif family but one of them had also recommended reinvestigation by the NAB. The LHC then appointed a referee judge, who has also quashed the reference on March 11, 2014 on the grounds that if a re-investigation was allowed, it would provide an opportunity to the investigators to pad up lacunas.
The NAB had then decided not to challenge in the Supreme Court the LHC decision. Nawaz Sharif was not named in the interim reference in an accountability court filed in March 2000. However, in the final reference approved by the then NAB chairman Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool, he was also included in it.
The Hudabiya Paper Mills case was initiated on the basis of an April 25, 2000 confessional statement from Ishaq Dar, wherein he allegedly admitted his role in laundering money to the tune of $14.86 million on behalf of the Sharifs through fictitious accounts. Dar has always asserted that the statement was taken under duress and coercion.
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