ISLAMABAD: Taking strong exception to anti-graft watchdog’s sudden change of heart regarding its plea against bail granted to former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general and incumbent adviser to the caretaker prime minister Ahad Cheema, the Supreme Court on Friday expressed its intention to slap a fine on National Accountability Bureau (NAB), but then dropped the idea only to save extra cost to the national exchequer amid the current economic crisis.
Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, a three-judge bench of the apex court, however, highlighted the need for putting a lid on the capricious abuse of power by NAB, regretting that the accountability law had been misused ruthlessly as an instrument against a particular class.
At the outset of the hearing, NAB’s special prosecutor told the bench — which also comprised Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel — that the bureau sought to withdraw all three cases against Mr Cheema, after a fresh inquiry revealed he was not involved in any of the graft cases including the one related to Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme.
Mr Cheema was arrested by NAB in Feb 21, 2018, in an inquiry pertaining to the housing scheme. He was also wanted in cases of corruption in LDA and amassing assets beyond known sources of income.
Anti-graft watchdog should be prosecuted for keeping an individual in jail only to claim later that it has no case against him, remarks Justice Mandokhel
In April 2021, he was granted bail in all three cases.
Justice Minallah regretted that after keeping Mr Cheema behind bars for years, NAB took the stand that it had got nothing against him in the cases.
“Who will be responsible for the three years, the accused spent behind bars for no fault of his?” he wondered, recalling how retired brigadier Asad Munir had to commit suicide when NAB ‘persecuted’ him and three years later he was acquitted of all charges.
CJP Bandial also recalled how one of his friends, a chartered accountant, was called by NAB as a witness in some inquiry but was told after making him sit for five years to come again some other day.
Justice Mandokhel wondered why NAB wielded unlimited power to initiate a case against anyone, adding that the bureau should be prosecuted for keeping an individual in jail, only to claim later that it had no case against him. The bench member then remarked that he was fully aware of NAB’s working as he had served as the prosecutor in the bureau.
Justice Minallah regretted that NAB was established by the former president Pervez Musharraf for ‘political engineering’, adding that someone had to be made responsible for what NAB had been doing.
He noted that NAB had sought adjournment of proceedings pending before the Lahore High Court 24 times and then they moved the apex court against the LHC’s decision despite the fact that the latter had given a strongly worded order against the bureau.
Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2023
