KARACHI: An accountability court on Friday remanded back a corruption reference against Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman over the issue of jurisdiction.

The anti-graft watchdog had in 2019 filed the reference and alleged that Mr Memon, along with others, had accumulated assets worth over Rs2.27 billion beyond his known sources of income.

When the case came up for hearing on Friday, the court pronounced its order reserved earlier on an application filed on behalf of Mr Memon through his counsel Raj Ali Wahid Kunwar asking the court to return the reference to the concerned court of law as the issue did not fall under the ambit of the amended National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

The court allowed the application and remanded back the reference to the NAB chairman, directing him to forward the matter to the court of relevant jurisdiction.

Later, speaking to the media outside the NAB court, Mr Memon said that President Asif Ali Zardari had spent 12 years in jail without being convicted.

In reply to a question, he said: “There should be trust in the courts. The courts should not be intimidated or made controversial, and efforts should always be made to achieve justice based on truth and fairness.”

He said that the efforts of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari made the 26th Amendment possible. He said that Sindh took the initiative in establishing constitutional courts in the high court.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2024