ISLAMABAD: In a fresh plea, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has accused deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif before the Supreme Court of exerting his influence as the chief executive of the country to prevent filing of the appeal in the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibya Paper Mills reference.

Therefore, NAB pleaded in a two-page application the apex court should condone the delay in the filing of the appeal in the interest of justice, fair play and equity.

The application was filed by NAB under Order 12, Rule 1, of the Supreme Court Rules 1980 that deals with the condoning of delay in filing of an appeal or petition.

A three-judge bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel is seized with the appeal seeking opening of the Hudaibya reference.

Asks SC to condone ‘mere technicality’ in interest of justice, fair play & equity

On Nov 28, the court had asked NAB to explain its inaction in pursuing the reference from the filing of the same till the time the Sharif family was sent into exile.

The appeal was moved against the Lahore High Court judgement which had quashed the reference through a unanimous judgement on Dec 3, 2012. But the judges disagreed with each other over permissibility of reinvestigation by NAB.

This necessitated referring the same to a referee judge who held on March 11, 2014 that reinvestigation of the case was not permissible because it would mean providing NAB another opportunity ostensibly to fill up their lacunas and equip them with better tools for combating or “victimising the Sharifs at the hands of the NAB authorities”, which obviously was not the intent and purport of the National Accountability Ordinance.

Now in the fresh application, NAB has argued that the conclusion reached by the high court in quashing the reference and debarring the authority from reinvestigation was blatant misinterpretation of the law leading to grave miscarriage of justice. Hence the delay was liable to be condoned and NAB’s petition deserved to be heard on its merits, the application pleaded.

It further argued that the high court acted with material irregularity and discarded the law, contrary to the principles laid down by the apex court. Hence on this ground as well the delay is liable to be condoned.

NAB said that in the Hudaibya reference, the respondents had caused a loss of more than one billion rupees to the national exchequer, an aspect of the case which should be dilated upon without being influenced by the mere technicality of delay.

In the appeal, Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Shamim Akhtar — mother of the Sharif brothers — Mian Muhammad Abbas Sharif, now deceased, Maryam Safdar, Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Messers Hudaibya Paper Mills Ltd, the federal government as well as the judge of the accountability court No. IV Rawalpindi are respondents.

NAB argued that Nawaz Sharif prevented filing of the appeal before the Supreme Court and on this ground alone the delay was liable to be condoned and now when the appeal was before the apex court, it should be decided on its merits without technically knocking out the petitioner on the grounds of limitation.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2017