SC office again refuses to entertain Sharif petition

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Registrar Office has refused to entertain former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s petition against the filing of multiple references by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in line with the top court’s Panamagate case verdict.

The office had returned Sharif’s petition for merging the three NAB references after raising objections. Later, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had, on November 16, dismissed his appeal after maintaining the objections raised by the Registrar Office.

Later, former premier, through his counsel Khawaja Haris, filed an application against the chief justice’s decision. However, the registrar office has again returned his application.



A senior legal team member told The Express Tribune that they also challenged the CJP’s decision to uphold the Registrar Office objections through a constitutional petition, which is still pending.

Multiple references against the accused, for each asset allegedly owned, possessed or acquired by him, disproportionate to his known sources of income, is repugnant to Section 9(a)(v) of the NAO, 1999.

Four corruption references against the Sharif family and former finance minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad’s accountability court were filed last month by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in light of the Supreme Court order.

The petition says multiple references in a case allegedly involving acquisition of assets beyond means is unprecedented and, as such, is manifestly discriminatory and in violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights as guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution.



“Filing of multiple references against an accused for the same alleged offence exposes him to double punishment, which is repugnant to the accused person’s Fundamental Right under Article 13 of the Constitution,” it read.

The SC had already dismissed review petitions filed by deposed prime minister and his children against the Panamagate verdict.

Sharif was disqualified from holding public office over his failure to disclose unclaimed wages due on him from a Dubai-based company owned by his son in the assets statement he filed along with his nomination papers in 2013.

The judgment had thus asked NAB to file references against the Sharif family members.