NAB Amendment Bill: PM Shehbaz’s graft cases among 50 sent back by accountability courts

Courts returned 50 cases including Prime Minister Shehbaz, Hamza Shehbaz.
This relief has been given as per the amendments in the National Accountability Bureau rules.
The Ramzan Sugar Mill reference against Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza was also sent back.

Islamabad: In an important development, the accountability courts have withdrawn 50 major corruption cases against the accused, including the cases against Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

This relief is provided as per the amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) rules.

Accordingly, the accountability courts have returned the cases against Prime Minister Shehbaz, former Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf and former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to NAB.

gave Ramzan Sugar Mill Reference Cases against Prime Minister Shehbaz and son Hamza are also included in the cases sent back. NAB had filed the reference in 2019, alleging that the two accused caused a loss of Rs 213 million to the national exchequer through “fraud and dishonesty”.

Similarly, the Accountability Court returned six references of Rental Power Plant (RPP) against the Speaker of the National Assembly to NAB. The bureau had alleged that Ashraf misused his powers in rental power projects while he was the water and power minister in the PPP government.

The Universal Services Fund (USF) reference against PPP Senator Yousaf Raza Geelani, accusing him of abuse of power in an illegal campaign, was also returned.

NAB references against Senator Salim Mandviwala, former Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Abbasi and Senator Rubina Khalid of PPP have also been returned.

After the amendments in the NAB rules, the references of Mudarabah scandal and company fraud have also been withdrawn from the accountability courts.

In August, National Assembly The National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill 2022 was passed which sought to exclude private transactions from the purview of NAB.

Under the amendment bill, NAB’s jurisdiction was set to deal only with mega scandals. Further, it was suggested that supplementary references can be filed only with the permission of the court to expedite the court proceedings within one year.

According to the bill, investigating officers shall not harass any person during investigation or inquiry and shall limit their questions to the investigation or inquiry or collection of evidence.