KARACHI: Sindh High Court has ordered National Accountability Bureau to continue its investigation against provincial assembly members and bureaucrats.
The court directed anti-graft watchdog to continue its investigation till the final judgment was announced, however, the report should not be presented.
The court was hearing two identical petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and civil rights organisations against the recently passed act by Sindh Assembly that repealed the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.
The PTI, activist Karamat Ali and other petitioners told the court that the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) provincial government had introduced the bill to stall the National Accountability Bureau’s inquiries and investigations against bureaucrats and politicians. They said the act was “unlawfully passed without any discussion or debate in the assembly.
The SHC also sought list of the MPAs who voted to repeal the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 besides those provincial assembly members NAB was investigating against them.
Arguing over the bill, Advocate General Sindh remarked that under 18th Constitutional Amendment, the provincial assembly has powers to pass the bill.
Over this, the Chief Justice SHC remarked this mean federal anti-corruption court, anti-terrorism courts and anti-narcotics court be shut down.
The petitioners had said the governor had expressed his reservations on the bill and returned it to the legislature for reconsideration, but PPP lawmakers brought “the same unconstitutional bill to the House without any amendment” and got it passed.
They requested the court to declare the entire repeal act “unconstitutional and ultra vires (beyond legal authority) of the constitution” and “no provision of the accountability act overrides or eclipses the inquiry, investigation and proceedings under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999”.
They also requested that the court restrain the anti-graft watchdog’s authorities from transferring their pending inquiries, investigations and references to any other authority in view of the enactment of the repeal act until the petition was disposed of.
The court adjourned the hearing till August 22.
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