A Sindh High Court referee judge opined that petitions challenging a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference in an illegal land allotments case cannot be heard by the constitutional bench and these petitions be decided by the regular bench of the high court.
The decision of referee judge Justice Agha Faisal came following split judgments of constitutional bench judges with regard to the hearing of the petitions that challenged the jurisdiction of the reference before the accountability court as they fall under section 4(2) (d) and (e) of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 as amended.
The referee judge observed that the primary object sought in the present petitions is for the impugned order to be declared to have been rendered without lawful authority. The court observed that prima facie this object falls within the remit of Article 199(1)(a)(ii) of the Constitution; pari materia to seeking a writ of certiorari.
The referee judge after perusal of the orders of the division bench held that the present petitions fall squarely within the domain of the regular bench. The court opined in favour of high court judge that concluded that these matters do not fall within the purview of the constitutional bench and observed that these petitions are required to be placed before a regular bench expeditiously, in view of the earlier order of the division bench giving due cognizance to the anxiety of the petitioners.
The referee judge directed the office to place the opinion before the acting chief justice for consideration of constituting the division bench, for announcement of the rule of court, based on the majority opinion.
Former secretary land, director generals of the Sindh Building Control Authority and Malir Development Authority and deputy commissioner and others have challenged the fresh NAB reference pertaining to illegal conversion, exchange and transfer of state land to a private builder in Malir.
Mohammad Javed Hanif Khan, Manzoor Qadir, Agha Maqsood Abbas, Kazi Jan Mohammad and Mohammad Sohail had been booked by NAB in a fresh reference in which they were included as co-accused along with the private builder, government revenue officials and others pertaining to illegal conversion, exchange of 17,671 acres of land and causing a loss to the national exchequer to the tune of Rs708 billion.
The petitioners’ counsel challenged the jurisdiction of the reference before the accountability court as they fall under section 4(2) (d) and (e) of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 as amended.
They submitted that accountability court has no jurisdiction to try the case following amendment in the NAB law and requested the court to restrain NAB from taking any coercive action against them till decision of the petitions.
NAB had filed the reference against 33 persons, including a former managing director the Malir Development Authority, former Sindh Building Control Authority director generals, former deputy commissioner of Malir and other revenue officials.
NAB alleged that accused in active connivance with each other grabbed 17,671.87 acres under the grab of “adjustment/exchange/consolidation in 2013-14 in sheer violation of law for private builder, causing a colossal loss of over Rs708.08 billion to the national exchequer”.