In a written order issued on Wednesday, the Supreme Court said that there was no limitation on the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding the need to inform an accused before arresting them.

The written order, issued by a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Azmat Saeed, was in connection with an appeal the court heard on March 19.

The appeal was filed by NAB against an individual named Syed Jalil Arshad and another person, regarding an order given by the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 2016.

The concluding lines of the LHC order, "may be interpreted to imply that NAB cannot arrest an accused without informing him first," the court noted in the order issued today.

However, it found that, after examining the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, no such limitation has been imposed on the accountability bureau.

"Needless to say, if sufficient material has been gathered to connect a person to the commission of an offence, obviously NAB can arrest such a person," the Supreme Court clarified.

The order said that they do not expect the accountability bureau to misuse such power and added that the civil petition had been disposed of following the observation.