Hudabiya case: Sharif prevented filing of appeal before SC, NAB informs top court

Top graft buster has moved fresh plea in Rs1.2 billion corruption reference against Sharif family

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has informed the Supreme Court that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, being the chief executive of the federation in power, prevented the filing of an appeal before the apex court in the 17-year-old Hudabiya Paper Mills reference against the Sharif family.

The country’s top graft-buster, through its Deputy Prosecutor Imranul Haq, has moved a fresh application in the Rs1.2 billion corruption reference, justifying the delay in filing of appeal against a three-year-old Lahore High Court order to quash references against the Sharifs.

A three-judge bench of the top court – headed by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel – is hearing the bureau’s appeal against an LHC order.



In the application, the anti-corruption watchdog has maintained that now when the matter is before the SC justice requires that the “impugned judgment be scrutinised on the touchstone of precedents” settled by the top court. “No doubt an accused is the favorite child of law, but keeping in view the shape of scale of justice the complaint is also not devoid of the court's justice,” said the application.

The plea further stated that the fault, loose control or non-serious working of the judges of the high court should not damage the prosecution case on mere technical ground of limitation. “Denial of reinvestigation amounted to denial of justice itself, hence the justice was castrated, damage should be undone by this honorable court by condoning the delay in filing of petition,” it demanded.

The NAB’s response came a day after the apex court asked the anti-graft watchdog to prove how the Sharif family had exerted influence over court proceedings in the Hudabiya Paper Mills reference.