ISLAMABAD – The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging the appointment of Opposition Leader in National Assembly (NA) Shehbaz Sharif as chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and declared the petition as non-maintainable.
The court termed that the Speaker National Assembly had discretionary powers and Member NA couldn’t be barred from entering the House. Shehbaz Sharif and Saad Rafiq were accused till proven as guilty in corruption cases, it added.
A divisional bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mohsin Akhter Kiyani announced the verdict comprising 14-pages in above matter.The bench had earlier reserved the decision on December 31.
The court order read that the accused would be considered as innocent till crime is proved against them. Shehbaz Sharif and Saad Rafiq were also not disqualified from the membership of NA.
The investigation officers of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were not affected party in this mater, the order further stated.
It stated that NAB could raise the matter before Speaker NA if the accused production orders were creating hurdles in investigation process.
The IHC order read that the petitioner Hanif Rahi Advocate was not the directly affected person in accordance of Article 199 of the Constitution and he was also not a party in NAB inquiry.
It may be mentioned here that the petitioner had stated in his plea that Shehbaz’s appointment as the chairman of the committee is illegal, adding that producing the PML-N leader’s production orders was a violation of accountability laws.
The petition further added that a reference should be prepared regarding the violation of Section 31 of the NAB ordinance.
The petition added that the accountability court should be directed to take action against the PML-N president according to Section 16(B) of the NAB ordinance.
