LAHORE: The appointment of Justice Ijazul Ahsan of the Supreme Court as monitoring judge in references to be filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his other family members has been challenged before the apex court.

Barrister Zafarullah Khan of the Watan Party filed a petition at the Lahore registry saying the Panama case judgment delivered by the apex court and disqualification of an elected prime minister without trial would be remembered mostly for the infirmity of legal reasons, for question it raises about the integrity of the process leading to the verdict and for distorting institutional balance of power.

The petitioner contends that the very purpose of fair trial under Article 10-A of the Constitution is impossible if a judge of the SC continues to monitor the whole process from the joint investigation team (JIT) to NAB and the accountability court.

He argues that affected party cannot get fair trial from a lower court, which will remain prejudice by the apex court’s constant monitoring. He points out that there is no precedent that a Supreme Court judge had monitored a specific case in lower courts. Furthermore, he says, the NAB ordinance does not have any clause for monitoring of the court’s proceedings by a superior court judge.

Barrister Khan submitted that the judiciary of Pakistan unfortunately does not have an illustrious history when it comes to standing up for democracy and constitutionalism or exhibiting allegiance to the scheme of institutional checks and balances.

He asks the court to declare the appointment of Justice Ahsan as monitoring judge in the NAB references against the Sharif family null and void for being violative to right to fair trial under Article 10-A of the Constitution. He pleads that the monitoring of the trial court proceedings by a judge of the SC would obstruct the course of justice.

He also asks the court to provide Nawaz Sharif with a right to appeal like other cases taken up under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2017