Pindi bench drops sentences of 13 NAB convicts

High court remands 11 cases back to three accountability courts of Rawalpindi

RAWALPINDI:

A special division bench of Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi has set aside five to 14 years of sentences and 10-year disqualification, awarded to 13 NAB convicts in 11 references related to corruption, embezzlement, fraud and making illegal assets by the three accountability courts of Rawalpindi, in wake of the approval of new accountability laws.

The high court also remanded back all the cases to the three accountability courts, directing the respective judges to conduct retrial of the cases after listening to the arguments of the counsels afresh.

The high court has also ruled that if the accused in the aforementioned cases file constitutional petitions in light of the newly approved NAB rules for dismissing the cases and awarded sentences, so the NAB courts under the newly approved rules will be independent to make any decision.

Through the announcement of this decision, the high court has disposed of all appeals of the accused, convicted by the NAB courts.

These cases also include the case of Major Kashif Qayyum, who looted Rs90 million from the citizens.

The three NAB courts in Rawalpindi have issued new notices to the accused in all these cases soon after receipt of the high court’s verdict.

The remanding back of these 11 NAB references has increased the number of references being heard in the accountability courts.

All the accused have also started filing petitions to remove the NAB reference under the newly approved accountability rules after receiving notices from the NAB courts.

The accountability courts in Rawalpindi faced several issues in the outgoing year. The Rawalpindi Division has a total of four accountability courts. Judges have not been available in two of these courts for a long time. Whereas only five cases were pending in these courts. That number has increased to 16 with 11 cases being remanded back from the high court.

Eight references are pending in the Accountability Court No. 1 of Judge Raja Qamar Zaman, four each in courts No. 2 and 3. The judges of court number 2 and 4 are unavailable. Only three new references have been filed this year in all four NAB courts in Rawalpindi while 12 cases are likely to be disposed of at the beginning of the next year due to the softening of the NAB laws.

Judicial sources said that since the number of cases is very low in the NAB courts, judges are not likely to be appointed in accountability courts No. 2 and 4.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2022.