ISLAMABAD: A judge of the accountability court on Friday relinquished the charge after serving in the federal capital for an unprecedented nine years.

District and sessions judge Mohammad Bashir was appointed as the accountability judge of Islamabad in 2012 for a period of three years.

He, however, got an extension of three years while hearing cases related to former president Asif Ali Zardari. The judge acquitted Mr Zardari in all the five cases which were filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during the regime of former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf.

Judge Bashir got another three-year extension since he was hearing the Avenfield properties reference in which former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and retired Capt Mohammad Safdar were nominated as the accused persons.

He was working under the supervision of Justice Ijazul Ahsan of the Supreme Court.

Mr Bashir has become the first ever judicial officer who stayed for nine consecutive years in an accountability court since the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) was promulgated in 1999. He was given extension on the direction of the then chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar.

Interestingly, section 5 (a) of NAO says: “A judge of court who is a serving district and sessions judge shall hold office for a period of three years from the date of his initial appointment as such judge.”

Recently, judge Bashir during the last week of his term gave permanent exemption to property tycoon Malik Riaz from attending the proceedings of Rs100 billion land scam related to Bahria Icon Tower.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2021