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ISLAMABAD: Khawaja Haris Ahmed, representing PTI chairman Imran Khan in his petition against amendments made in the accountability law in August, told the Supreme Court on Monday that the Omni Group declared Rs4.85 billion under the government’s tax amnesty scheme only to keep the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from looking into allegations of corruption.
The Omni group is facing charges in the fake account case, which was initiated after the apex court took suo motu notice of reports about massive money laundering in 2018 and constituted a six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to look into the matter.
The JIT had submitted a report to the apex court on Dec 19, 2018, recommending that NAB take cognisance of corruption cases.
On Jan 7, 2019, the SC ordered NAB to look into the matter and allowed the bureau to file references against the accused if it concludes that it has enough evidence to prove guilt.
“After accepting the amount involved in the fake account case, the group took advantage of the amnesty scheme and now NAB says it cannot look into the issue since the watchdog has no jurisdiction over matters concerning the amnesty scheme,” argued Khawaja Haris.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial heads a three-member bench which is hearing the case.
“You want to say that they made money, but went scot-free,” observed the CJP. They could secure tax exemption by taking benefit of the amnesty scheme, but still have to explain the source of the money, he added.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan said it was regrettable that after the recent amendments, the onus was now on the prosecution to establish that the amount mentioned in the reference was kosher and not the fruit of illegal means.
After the recent amendments in the NAB law, Khawaja Haris argued, all the references pending before accountability courts would become infructuous and all the accused would be acquitted since the courts cannot take up cases of corruption involving amounts below than Rs500 million.
Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022
