Accountability: ‘NAB can recover fine, not markup’

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday ruled that the National Accountability Bureau could not recover markup on the amount of fine imposed by the trial court on a convict. A division bench headed by Justice Mahmood Maqbool Bajwa suspended an order by an accountability court. The trial court had sentenced Shahbaz Chaudhry to 14 years in jail and ordered him to pay a Rs90 million fine. The court also directed NAB to recover the fine from the convict along with the markup. Chaudhry challenged the order, stating that it violated various provisions of the Constitution. The petitioner’s counsel argued that the NAB Ordinance empowered the accountability court to impose a fine but not the markup. He said the petitioner was willing to deposit the original amount. The bench suspended the order of the trial court and adjourned the hearing until May 27.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2014.