Reacting to the Supreme Court's (SC) verdict on a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeal to reopen the Hudaibiya Mills reference, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Fawad Chaudhry accused the accountability body of being unprepared to tackle the case.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench on Friday had rejected NAB's appeal to reopen the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibya Paper Mills reference saying it was unswayed by the prosecution's arguments.

Talking to the media, Chaudhry alleged that NAB had been trying to avoid reopening the reference. He said that there was no need for NAB to file an appeal in the SC as it could have reopened the case without seeking a verdict from the apex court.

"The Hudaibiya case is about a billion rupees stolen by Sharif. They [the money] belong to the people of Pakistan," he said, adding that no one can declare that money to be exempted from investigation.

He further said that NAB's preparation for the appeal was poor and accused the body of failing to thoroughly investigate the matter.

"NAB was extremely non-serious," he said. He, however, exempted retired Justice Javed Iqbal — the current chief of the watchdog — from criticism, saying that it would take the new NAB chairman some time to "get things in order".

Chaudhry also promised that his party would continue to pursue the case till it reaches a "logical conclusion".