NAB to file appeal in Hudabiya case today

Move comes as hearings begin whether NAB committed contempt by not filing appeal earlier

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to file an appeal before the Supreme Court against the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) 2014 order to quash a reference against the Sharifs in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case.

According to a statement issued by the bureau, NAB will approach the SC today (Friday).

On Friday (today) the Supreme Court is also scheduled to hear a Civil Miscellaneous Application (CMA) filed by Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid on September 11 requesting the apex court to direct NAB to file an appeal against the LHC’s order in the Hudaibiya case.

The LHC had quashed Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference in 2014 and NAB, at that time, did not challenge the decision in the apex court.



The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which probed the Sharifs’ offshore assets had also recommended that the Supreme Court should direct NAB to reopen the Hudabiya case.

In July 2017, NAB had informed the Supreme Court that the bureau would file an appeal before it against the LHC’s decision, but the filing has been delayed for reasons unknown.

The issue came to the limelight again on September 11, when Sheikh Rashid, one of the three petitioners in the Panama Papers case, moved an application requesting that the judge responsible for supervising NAB proceedings should direct the bureau to file an appeal to reopen the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibiya scam against the Sharif family.



Rashid contended that NAB had submitted an undertaking before the Supreme Court in July that it would file an appeal against the LHC order within seven days, but it failed to do so.

Further, Rashid requested the apex court to initiate contempt proceedings against NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry and the NAB prosecutor general for their failure to file an appeal in line with the undertaking by NAB’s Additional Prosecutor General Akbar Tarar before the three-judge bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan.

The apex court is scheduled to take up Rashid’s application today (Friday).

The Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference was initiated against the Sharifs in 2000. It was initiated on the basis of a confessional statement of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, wherein he admitted his role in laundering billion of rupees on behalf of the Sharifs by using fictitious accounts. Later, Dar claimed that the confessional statement was taken under duress.