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Sunday, October 6, 2024

Supreme Court Reinstates Amendments to NAB Laws

The Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance, reversing a previous decision and restoring changes to anti-corruption laws, marking a significant win for the government and dismissing Imran Khan's plea as unfounded.

the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday reinstated the amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), overturning the September 15, 2023, verdict that had previously annulled these changes. The five-member bench, led by Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa and including Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Athar Minallah, and Hasan Azhar Rizvi, delivered a unanimous verdict supporting the appeals filed by the federal and provincial governments.

The court found that the previous judgment failed to demonstrate how the amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws violated constitutional rights. The ruling emphasized that the amendments did not decriminalize any offenses but merely modified the scope of investigations and the forum for criminal trials. “The chief justice and the judges of the Supreme Court are not the gatekeepers of parliament,” the verdict observed, reinforcing the court’s intent to uphold legislative decisions wherever possible.

A Triumph for the Government

The reinstatement of the amendments is a significant victory for the incumbent government, which argued that the majority judgment announced by then-CJP Umar Ata Bandial was procedurally flawed. The Supreme Court had constituted the larger bench to hear the intra-court appeals after the September 2023 verdict, which restored corruption cases against public office holders. The amendments had initially been struck down on the grounds that they exceeded NAB’s authority by imposing arbitrary limits and altering its operational scope.

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The modifications under scrutiny included reducing the NAB chairman’s term from four years to three, limiting NAB’s jurisdiction to cases involving over Rs500 million, and excluding tax-related matters and cases under regulatory bodies from NAB’s purview. The court’s decision to set aside the September 15 ruling allows these changes to stand, with Justice Minallah dissenting only on the federal government’s appeal but supporting the appeals filed by private citizens.

Legal Reasoning and Reactions

In its detailed 16-page verdict, the Supreme Court noted that Imran Khan’s petition, which challenged the amendments, did not convincingly establish any breach of fundamental rights as required by Articles 14, 23, and 25 of the Constitution. The ruling also stated that the earlier decision had “rewritten the Constitution” by creating an artificial distinction between different categories of public servants. “The amendments to the NAB laws did not decriminalize any offense,” the verdict emphasized, reinforcing the legitimacy of the legislative changes made in April 2022 by the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government.

Legal experts have provided varied reactions to the ruling. Barrister Asad Rahim called the decision “strange and barely reasoned,” yet he acknowledged that the amendments themselves were a controversial attempt by the government to manage NAB’s scope and power. The court’s ruling comes after months of legal battles, public debate, and a significant number of hearings, marking a pivotal moment in Pakistan’s efforts to balance judicial oversight and legislative authority.