KARACHI: Of the six new accountability courts, which were set up in the metropolis in the wake of possible increase in cases following an aggressive anti-graft campaign by the National Accountability Bureau, five courts seem to have become liability on the national exchequer, since they have become dysfunctional for months due to non-appointment of judges, Dawn has learnt.

Earlier, the city had four accountability courts — better known as NAB courts — functioning in the Sindh government barracks, which had been overburdened with cases.

The judicial and prosecution sources told Dawn that the federal government had set up six additional courts in Karachi around six months ago in order to reduce the workload on judges of the existing four courts: AC-I, AC-II, AC-III and AC-IV.

The new courts were set up in compliance with the directives issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which while hearing a bail application of an accused, had taken notice of delays in trials in the accountability courts, they added.

Only one judge appointed, five courts vacant while staff continues to draw salaries

The apex court had directed the federal government to create new courts in order to lessen the workload on the judges of the existing courts to ensure speedy trials in corruption-related cases.

Therefore, the federal government had set up six new courts on the premises of the Municipal Training and Research Institute in Clifton, which had been vacant following the relocation of antiterrorism courts to the judicial complex inside the Karachi central prison.

The officials said that the government also made an allocation of funds amounting to over Rs10 million in the head of salaries of the judges, the staff and other expenditures of utilities, etc.

“The federal government through the ministry of law and justice had requested the Sindh High Court to nominate the judicial officers for appointment as presiding officers to fill vacant posts in newly set up accountability courts,” said the officials requesting anonymity.

They added that the Sindh High Court had nominated six judicial officers to the federal ministry of law and justice for their appointment to the new courts, but the ministry had only appointed one presiding officer to only one new court (AC-VI).

“The five other courts are still vacant for want of appointment of presiding officers despite the fact that the judicial staffs have been appointed and drawing salaries every month without doing any work,” added the sources.

Workload

The judicial sources told Dawn that of the four existing courts; judge of the Accountability Court-III Dr Sher Bano Karim had also retired in January this year, leaving just three courts functional at the moment.

Recently, the government had issued a notification giving additional charge of the AC-III, where high-profile cases against the Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani and his family members, Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Mustafa Kamal, and others, were pending, to the judge of the AC-IV, they added.

The official statistics suggested that around 169 references related to corruption, corrupt practices and cheating the public at large were pending disposal before the three functioning courts.

The judicial and prosecution officials, who did not wish to be named, said that the workload had almost doubled on the functional courts after the federal anti-graft watchdog launched an aggressive campaign against politicians, government officials and private persons, particularly builders and developers, a couple of years ago.

“However, following amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 the federal government had excluded certain categories of the cases from the domain of NAB, thus the number of references had stopped growing,” they added.

The sources said that while no new references had been filed by NAB and no judges had been appointed to the new courts, the same had apparently become a financial liability on the national exchequer, as the staffs of these courts were drawing salaries for almost six months.

However, the amendments to the anti-graft law had delegated the powers of granting pre-arrest or post-arrest bail to the accountability courts; the number of bail applications had increased in the accountability courts.

“Earlier, the suspects facing call-up notices from the NAB authorities used to file petitions in the Sindh High Court for grant of protective bail to avoid their arrest,” lawyers and prosecution officials said.

“The amended law has empowered the trial (accountability) courts to grant bail before and after arrest to suspects. Therefore, the already existing accountability courts had granted bail to around 170 applicants during the year 2021,” they added.

Cases backlog

The sources estimated that the Accountability Court-I had around 40 references pending trial by end of year 2021 during which it had granted bail to around 190 suspects following the passage of amended law.

The AC-II had around 48 references pending trial while it granted bail to around 40 suspects in 2021.

The AC-III had some 40 references pending trial by the end of 2021.

AC-IV had around 41 references pending trial while it granted bail to some 48 suspects last year.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2022