ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday restored the amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, by the then PDM-led government in 2022.
A larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faiz Isa and comprising Justices Athar Minallah, Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Hasan Azhar Rizvi gave the unanimous decision. The ruling was announced on the petitioned filed by the federal and provincial governments against the top court’s September 15 ruling. They had made PTI founder Imran Khan and NAB respondents in the case.
In the intra-court appeals, the government had challenged the apex court’s 15 September 2023 majority judgment reversing the amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).
The larger bench ruled that the PTI founder failed to prove that the amendments made to the NAB Ordinance were unconstitutional.
It also remarked that the three-member bench could also not prove that the amendments were made in violation of the Constitution.
In September 15 ruling, a three-member bench headed by then CJP Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ijazul Ahsan had struck down some amendments made to the NAO, 1999.
The amendments, which were passed during a joint parliament session in April 2022 during the tenure of the PDM-led government, were challenged by Imran Khan in the apex court.
It amended 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 top court on the PTI founder’s petition in June 2022.
Following the modifications in the NAB laws, several corruption cases against public office holders were closed down, however, the SC ruling restored all those closed cases.
