In blow to Imran Khan, SC restores changes in anti-corruption law

ISLAMABAD: In a victory for the ruling coalition government and a blow to former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Pakistan Supreme Court reinstated amendments made to the country's National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), overturning its own decision from last year, Geo News reported.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faiz Isa and comprising Justice Aminuddin, Justice Jamal Khan Mandukhel, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi announced the unanimous verdict. Approving the intra-court appeals filed by the federal and provincial governments, Pakistan's apex court remarked that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan could not prove that NAB (National Accountability Bureau) amendments were unconstitutional.

Notably, the top anti-graft body and the PTI founder were made respondents in the intra-party appeals. The majority judgement had struck down some amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999.

The amendments -- National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act 2022 -- were passed in a joint sitting of the parliament in April 2022 during the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government, which came into power after ousting ex-premier Khan via a no-trust move in 2022, as reported by Geo News. It modified sections 2, 4, 5, 6, 25 and 26 of the NAB laws, however, 9 out of 10 amendments were declared "null and void" by the CJP Bandial-led bench on the PTI founder's petition filed in June 2022.

Referring to the September 15 ruling, the court today pointed out that the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 -- which required that a plea must be heard by "not less than five judges of the SC" -- was enacted while Khan's petition was pending adjudication. The top court also noted that the petition challenging the amendments made to the Ordinance was not heard and decided in accordance with the SC (Practice and Procedure) Act -- hereinafter referred to as the "Act". In a 2-1 majority verdict announced in September last year, a three-member bench had approved Imran Khan's petition, challenging the NAB law amendments made during the tenure of the previous PDM-led government.

Subsequently, the federal government, filed an intra-court appeal against the Pakistan SC judgement in October, stating that the majority judgement suffers from "procedural impropriety" and is, therefore, "liable to be set aside." Following the amendments, the NAB was restricted to investigating any graft case worth less than Pakistani rupees (PKR) 500 million. The accountability body's powers were also curtailed to probe into a fraud case unless its victims are more than 100. The amendments also modified the NAB law to keep an accused in its custody for a maximum of 14 days which was later exceeded to 30 days, Geo News reported.