LAHORE: A two-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday dismissed an intra-court appeal (ICA) filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against a decision of a single bench of the LHC in which the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) was ordered to register upgraded charges in the case regarding assets of Ramzan Sugar Mills, owned by members of the Sharif family.

The mills administration had requested the SECP to register upgraded charges on its assets to the extent of Rs4.4bn in favour of three banks. However, the commission denied the request demanding the mills to submit a no-objection certificate (NoC) of NAB since the anti-corruption watchdog had issued a letter to mark a caution on the transfer of shareholding of the mills following a reference against some of its shareholders.

The mills filed a writ petition in the LHC against the SECP, which a single bench allowed on May 28.

In response, NAB filed an ICA against the single-bench’s decision.

However, the two-judge bench, comprising Justice Masud Abid Naqvi and Justice Jawad Hassan, dismissed the ICA as not maintainable.

The bench, in its written verdict, observed that the order impugned in the writ petition had been passed by the additional joint registrar of the companies, under the Companies Act, 2017, which was an appealable order in view of Section 480 of the Act.

It noted that NAB had already filed an objection petition under Section 13 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, in the accountability court, which was still pending.

The bench stated that it was crystal clear that against the order of the additional joint registrar an alternative remedy of appeal had been provided and the bureau had duly challenged the same by filing an objection petition under Section 480 of the Act.

It remarked that the instant ICA had been filed under Section 3 of the Law Reforms Ordinance, 1972, whereas its subsection (2) barred the remedy of the ICA in those cases in which the relevant law provided remedy of appeal, revision or review. Therefore, the bench said, the appeal of NAB was dismissed for being not maintainable.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2020