LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has informed the Lahore High Court that inquiries of assets beyond means against federal minister Khusro Bakhtiar and his brother, provincial minister Hashim Jawan Bakht, are under way and would be completed soon.

A reply filed on behalf of NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal further states that no contempt of court was committed by the bureau.

A lawyer, Ahsan Abid, had filed a contempt petition against the NAB chairman. In its reply, the bureau said it worked independently and impartially, and the lawmaker brothers had not exerted any political pressure on it. The bureau asked the court to dismiss the contempt petition.

The petitioner, who is also a complainant against the brothers, pleaded that the court had ordered the NAB to conclude the inquiries in three months, but it did not do so. Therefore, he argued that, the chairman and the NAB director general committed contempt for which they should be penalised.

SUGAR MILLS CASE: The court on Friday suspended operation of an income tax recovery notice of Rs24 million issued to Chaudhry Sugar Mills of the Sharif family, and directed the Inland Revenue commissioner (appeals) to decide a pending appeal in 30 days.

The mills’ general manager filed a petition through a counsel pleading that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) sent the income tax recovery notice of Rs24m without any legal justification.

He said an appeal against the FBR notice was still pending before the tribunal, which should be decided expeditiously to provide relief to the petitioner.

Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza suspended operation of the impugned notice and directed the tribunal to decide the appeal of the mills within a month.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2020