News
Thursday, January 19, 2012
SC rejects NAB appeal against Sharif family* Court orders NAB to return assets of Sharif family g Says freezing assets was an unlawful and unconstitutional act
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a verdict of the Lahore High Court and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to release assets of the Sharif family.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, said that keeping the assets in custody was an unlawful and unconstitutional act on the behalf of NAB since there had been no conviction of the family members.
NAB Prosecutor General Karim Khan Agha appeared and submitted an agreement signed between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif and former president Pervez Musharraf’s government on court’s earlier direction. He contended that through such precedent anyone could come to get his or her assets released.
The chief justice told him that it might be an agreement between individuals and the then government, and asked Agha to produce any document agreed upon by the NAB and the Sharif family.
The court told him that the Lahore High Court had already clearly said that the assets which were related to security fell under the court’s jurisdiction and not NAB’s. The bench observed that the LHC conducted proceedings over the matter and found no conviction of Sharif family and, therefore, it had ordered release of their assets.
Agha argued that the LHC had committed an error in deciding that there was no agreement between Nawaz Sharif and the federal government, adding that the LHC had ignored the Supreme Court’s judgement, which clearly proved the existence of such and agreement.
The chief justice, while going through the agreement, said that it was neither mentioned in the document that assets of the Sharif family be surrendered to NAB nor did it have signatures of the family.
Last year, the LHC had directed the NAB to
return to the Sharif family shares certificates worth Rs 100 million, prize bonds of Rs 115 million, documents pertaining to land in Murree, Chaudhry Sugar Mills, Hudabiya Engineering Services, Hamza Shipping Corporation and Ramzan Sugar Mills, etc,
saying NAB had no authority to seize the property of a citizen after his acquittal in a case.Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk