Pakistan: NAB chairman summons meeting to formulate strategy on restoring graft cases

Islamabad [Pakistan], September 17 : Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed Butt summoned a consultative meeting to formulate the upcoming actions for restoring graft cases, Geo News reported on Sunday.

According to the Geo News, the NAB Prosecution Division on Monday will give a detailed briefing to the meeting participants on the apex court's decision to strike down some amendments in the NAB law.

About 2000 graft cases are expected to be restored after the Pakistan Supreme Court verdict in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law amendments case, Geo News reported on Saturday.

The Pakistani media outlet reported that from the 2000 cases restored, 755 were returned at the inquiry stage and 292 at the investigation stage, according to sources, which added that around 510 cases were of less than PKR 500 million and 168 cases pertained to assets beyond known source of income.

Similarly, 213 cases stand restored as per Section 9A, while 89 cases are related to fraud.

Pakistan’s Apex Court has approved the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan’s petition challenging amendments made to the country’s accountability laws during the tenure of the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)- led government, Geo News reported on Friday.

The three-member bench, headed by CJP Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, held more than 50 hearings on PTI chief Khan's petition against the amendments and reserved the judgment on the hearing on September 5.

The Pakistan-based news outlet reported that the Supreme Court in its verdict restored graft cases against public office holders that were closed down following the amendments.

The apex court ordered restoring all graft cases worth less than Rs500 million that were closed down against the political leaders belonging to different political parties and public office holders and declared the amendments void.

These include the Toshakhana reference against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Supremo Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, along with the LNG reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the rental power reference against former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Geo News reported.

Additionally, the court directed the NAB to return all records related to cases to relevant courts within seven days.

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