LAHORE – Supreme Court’s Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who had been appointed as head of a three-member bench to hear Hudaibiya Paper Mills case against Sharifs, on Monday has withdrawn from the bench.

The hearing of the case was scheduled for today (Nov 13). As the hearing began, Justice Khosa remarked that the case has been put in front of him due to the office mistake as he had already given verdict in the Panama Papers case.

The judge added that he had ordered to reopen the case in his verdict and written around 14 paragraphs pertaining to Hudaibiya mills case. He said that the Registrar office might have not read my verdict.

The bench has now been disbanded and a new bench will be formede by the chief justice. The case has been adjourned for indefinite time.

Last week, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar formed a three-member bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, comprising Justice Dost Mohammad and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhail to hear NAB’s plea to reopen the case against members of Sharif family.

The plea had been filed against the verdict of the Lahore High Court, which had quashed the case in 2014, following the revelations made by a report of Panama Papers case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that had also recommended that the case should be reopened.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shehbaz and others had been made respondents in the case.

On July 28, the apex court while announcing the landmark decision regarding Panamagate case had directed the NAB to reopen the case.

In Panamagate verdict, the apex court had disqualified the former premier for concealing his job a UAE-based company, Capital FZE, owned by his son.

A trial of the Sharif family, including Nawaz, his children – Maryam, Hasan and Hussain Nawaz – and son-in-law Captain (rtd) Safdar, is being conducted by the accountability court in three graft references regarding London flats, Al-Azizia Steel Mills and other companies.

Hudaibiya Paper Mills case

The Hudaibiya Paper Mills was allegedly used as a cover up by the Sharif family to launder money outside the country in the 1990s, Ishaq Dar had said in a confessional statement before a magistrate in 2000.

Following the revelations, the NAB had filed an appeal before the LHC against the mill, Sharif family, Dar and others.

However, the high court dismissed it in 2014 after Dar claimed that confessional statement was taken under duress.