LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan has entrusted hearing of petitions by PML-Q leaders -Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, speaker of Punjab Assembly, against the NAB to another two-judge bench as one of the members of the earlier bench recused himself from the case.

A bench comprising Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem and Justice Farooq Haider last week heard the petitions by the Chaudhry brothers.

However, Lahore High Court Bar Association President Tahir Nasarullah Warraich, on behalf of the petitioners, had objected to the presence of Justice Haider on the bench saying the judge had represented the Chaudhrys in a number of cases before his elevation.

He said it would not be appropriate for the judge to be part of the bench hearing the instant petitions. Later, the judge had recused himself from the case and the bench had referred the petitions to the chief justice for their fixation before any other bench.

Therefore, Chief Justice Khan marked the petitions for hearing to a bench comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Asjad Javed Ghural. The bench will take up the petitions on Tuesday (today).

The petitions by the Chaudhry brothers said that then chairman of the respondent bureau in 2000 authorised investigation against them on the allegations of misuse of authority, assets beyond means and wilful default under National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

They said all the three investigations were recommended for closure by the investigating officers and regional board of the NAB during 2017 and 2018 when the regime of political arch rivals was in place.

However, they said, the NAB chairman approved in 2019 reinvestigation and bifurcation of the inquiries against them after an investigation spreading over a period of 19 years since authorisation of investigation in 2000.

They asked the court to set aside the authorisation of the inquiries and the order for their bifurcation passed by the NAB chairman for being unlawful.

On the other side, the NAB rejected the stance of the Chaudhry brothers taken in their petitions regarding the pending inquiries. It said, “Chairman of the NAB has not taken any final decision on these cases or issued any order that could be challenged before the court.”

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2020