ISLAMABAD – The Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar has constituted a new bench to hear National Accountability Bureau (NAB)’s appeal regarding the reopening of Hudabiya Paper Mills case against the already embattled Sharif family.
The three-judge bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam and comprises Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Mian Alam Khel will take up NAB’s plea on November 28 against Lahore High Court’s three-year-old verdict to quash Hudabiya reference against the family of former premier Nawaz Sharif.
The new bench was formed days after Justice Asif Saeed Khosa rescued himself from the petition for having ‘already expressed his opinion in the Panamagate verdict’.
The court had then referred the case back to the CJP for formation of another bench to hear the case, which was subsequently adjourned for an indefinite period.
The apex court had directed the National Accountability Bureau to re-open the reference during the proceedings of Panama Papers case.
In 2014, the LHC quashed the Hudabiya Paper Mills reference against the Sharifs but NAB did not challenge the order in the SC.
According to NAB documents former premier Sharif, his daughter Maryam, father Mian Muhammad Sharif, brothers Shehbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif, Abbas’s wife Sabiha, Nawaz’s son Hussain, and Shahbaz’s son Hamza, had been accused of receiving ‘ill-gotten money’ in the case.
“All the accused persons colluded to commit acts of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under Section 9 and Section 10 of the NAB Ordinance,” former NAB chairman Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Maqbool had told an accountability court.
