A three-judge Supreme Court bench on Friday rejected the
National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) appeal to reopen the Rs1.2
billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference.
The bench —
comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Mazhar
Alam Khan Miankhel — had been hearing an appeal against a 2014 decision
of the Lahore High Court to quash the reference.
A written order will be issued later in the day, detailing the bench's reasons for its decision, DawnNews reported. All three judges were present when the verdict was read.
Earlier
in the day, a NAB lawyer had attempted for the last time to convince
the SC to allow reopening the Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference for the
"sake of justice".
But, like previous hearings of the
case, the bureau struggled to satisfy the court why the case should be
reopened when pressed.
The bench — which had been
seeking new evidence — had asked the bureau not to ‘parrot’ the Panama
Papers judgement but articulate its own reasons to convince the bench
why the reference originally filed against the Sharifs in the year 2000
should be resurrected.
"You have to satisfy the court on
the reasons for the delay in filing the appeal," Justice Alam had told
NAB's lawyer as Friday's hearing began.
The lawyer had
told the court that there are holes in the high court's decision and the
appeal must be reopened for the sake of justice.
Justice
Isa told the lawyer that the document on which the bureau has premised
its case ─ the confession of former finance minister Ishaq Dar ─ has not
been attached to the appeal for the reopening of the case.
"If
we remove Dar's statement, he will become an accused in the case, not a
witness," Justice Alam had observed, addressing the lawyer. "You have
not named him as a party in the appeal."
As the bench
inquired when the charges against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif
were framed, the lawyer responded that charges could not be framed as
the accused was not in the country at the time.
"The case went on for years and no charges were framed," Justice Isa had remarked.
The
court had asked the lawyer to submit before the bench the orders from
the last hearing of the case at the accountability court.
The
lawyer had told the bench that due to the stay order issued by the
Lahore High Court, the accountability court's proceedings were halted.
Justice Miankhel had noted that no stay order was attached to the appeal filed before the apex court.
"This
is all very interesting," Justice Isa had remarked. "The reference was
filed when former president Pervez Musharraf was in power. The NAB
chairman was appointed by him. The case was filed two years later when
the chairman gave his signature. NAB filed the reference and forgot
about it."
Retired Justice Shah Khawar, who was appointed
as the bureau's special prosecutor on Tuesday was present during
Friday's hearing and told the court that until the appointment of a
prosecutor general, he will be supervising the proceedings of the
Hudaibiya case.
"We have looked at all the merits of the case," Justice Isa had remarked, reserving the court's decision on the appeal.
Punjab
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif termed the verdict as being historic. He
said that the verdict was "a victory for truth and honesty."
Hudaibiya Paper Mills case
The 2000 Hudaibiya Paper Mills money laundering reference
was initiated on the basis of an April 25, 2000 confession statement
from Ishaq Dar, wherein he admitted to his role in laundering money to
the tune of $14.86 million on behalf of the Sharifs through fictitious
accounts.
The witness was, however, pardoned by the then NAB chairman.
LHC
referee judge Justice Sardar Shamim had quashed the reference on March
11, 2014 on the grounds that if a re-investigation was allowed against
the Sharif family, it would provide an opportunity to investigators to
pad up lacunas.
The LHC had quashed the case as the PML-N continued to claim that Dar's statement was taken under duress.
NAB had controversially decided not to challenge the high court’s decision.
While
Nawaz was not named in the interim reference filed in March 2000, in
the final reference against the Hudaibiya Paper Mills — approved by then
chairman NAB Khalid Maqbool — the bureau had accused Nawaz Sharif,
Shahbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Shamim
Akhtar, Sabiha Abbas and Maryam Nawaz.
