ISLAMABAD: After facing criticism from a section of the media, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) finally filed a petition with the Lahore High Court (LHC)’s Rawalpindi bench against the dismissal of its application by the accountability court seeking revival of corruption references against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members.

It may be noted that the Sharif family approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the revival of the corruption cases by NAB early in 2011.

The LHC granted relief to the applicants early this year but NAB did not challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.

Based on the verdict of the LHC, the accountability court Rawalpindi dismissed the petition of NAB seeking the revival of the references on September 19. NAB had filed the application in August 2011.

Under section 32 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), the bureau can challenge a verdict of an accountability court within 10 days.

Though the deadline for filing an appeal against the order of the accountability court was September 29, the NAB prosecution claimed that the deadline started from the day of receipt of the court order.

And in this particular matter, NAB said it received the pronouncement of the verdict a few days ago.

It may be mentioned that since 2011 the bureau had not filed any appeal against the acquittal of high-profile politicians by the appellate courts.

Sharif family had approached LHC against the revival of corruption cases by NAB

These included the acquittal of co-accused persons in the SGS, Cotecna, ARY, polo ground and Ursus tractors corruption references, in which former president Asif Ali Zardari was an accused.

After the expiry of the immunity enjoyed by Mr Zardari as the president, the bureau reopened all the cases against him in October last year. In May this year, he was acquitted in the polo ground reference but the bureau did not challenge the acquittal in the high court.

As per the allegations levelled in the Hudaibia Paper Mills reference, the Sharif family allegedly deposited ill-gotten money in the accounts opened in other people’s names and used it to pay off the loans of the “Sharif companies.”

In the Raiwind assets reference, the Sharifs were accused of acquiring vast tracts of land on which a number of palatial houses and mansions were constructed with pecuniary resources, which appeared to be grossly disproportionate to their known sources of income. A division bench of the LHC will hear the petition after Eid holidays.

Sources in NAB told Dawn that the prosecution department had been relaxing after the courts cleared the Sharifs in the Hudaibia Paper Mills and the Raiwind assets references.

According to the sources, after stories regarding the alleged ‘friendly prosecution’ appeared in the press, the NAB prosecution division filed the petition against the accountability court order in ‘haste’ without challenging the LHC verdict in the Supreme Court.

A former deputy prosecutor general of NAB, Raja Aamir Abbas Hassan, told Dawn that if the bureau was serious to keep the reference alive it would have filed an appeal against the LHC order in the Supreme Court.

“In case NAB missed the deadline of challenging the LHC order in the Supreme Court, it can file an application with the apex court to condone the delay,” he said. “Unless the LHC verdict on Sharifs petitions is not challenged, NAB would not be in a position to defend the petition against order of the accountability court.”

NAB spokesman Hafiz Mohammad Irfan, when contacted, did not comment on the matter.

Published in Dawn, October 4th , 2014