Supreme Court to hear Hudaibya Paper Mills on Monday

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday constituted a three-member bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa to hear Hudaibya Paper Mills on November 11.

The bench also included Justice Dost Mohammad and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel. Justice Khosa also headed the Panama Papers bench which disqualified Nawaz Sharif and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file references against the Sharif family.

The apex court on September 20 had admitted for hearing the NAB’s request to set aside the judgment delivered by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 2014, quashing the case of Hudaibya Paper Mills after which former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members were acquitted.

NAB’s Prosecutor General Waqas Qadeer Dar filed a civil petition for leave to appeal under Article 185(3) of the Constitution against the judgment passed by the Lahore High Court on March 11, 2014 in the case.

The anti-graft body made Nawaz Sharif, his brother and Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Mian Muhammad Abbass Sharif (late), Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Shamim Akhtar and Sabiha Abbass, Mariam Safdar, the Federation of Pakistan and Judge Accountability Court No IV, Rawalpindi, as respondents.

The appeal requested the apex court to examine the legality, and propriety of the impugned judgment of March 11, 2014. It was contended that the judgment was not passed in consonance with the dictums laid down by the apex court.

NAB further contended that the LHC’s referee judge was not competent to set aside the findings of the high court, in which NAB had been allowed to re-initiate investigations against Sharif family members.

The anti-graft body submitted that the JIT, which was constituted by the apex court for probing Panama matter, had collected further incriminating material regarding Hudaibya Paper Mills. It said that it cannot be debarred or restrained from proceeding further with the investigation; hence, it would be appropriate to set aside the impugned judgment to the extent of re-investigation in order to fortify and corroborate the material collected by the JIT.

The NAB further submitted that in light of the JIT recommendation, the SC in its July 28 verdict in Panama case had directed NAB to reopen the case.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Hudaibiya Paper Mills money laundering reference was initiated on the basis of an April 25, 2000 confessional statement of Ishaq Dar, wherein he admitted his role in laundering money to the tune of $14.86 million on behalf of Sharifs through fictitious accounts in 1990s.

The witness was, however, pardoned by the then NAB chairman. LHC’s referee judge Justice Sardar Shamim had quashed the reference on March 11, 2014 on the grounds that if a re-investigation was allowed against Sharif family, it would provide an opportunity to the investigators to pad up lacunas.

The learned High Court had quashed the case as the PML-N continued to claim that Dar's statement was taken under duress.

Later, NAB had decided not to challenge the high court’s decision. Nawaz Sharif was not named in the interim reference filed in March 2000. However, in the final reference against the Hudaibiya Paper Mills, approved by then chairman NAB Khalid Maqbool, the Bureau had accused Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Shamim Akhtar, Sabiha Abbas and Maryam Nawaz.

The decision of closing Hudaibiya case was taken by NAB authorities on the grounds that earlier in October 2011, a Rawalpindi division bench of the LHC restrained the accountability court from proceeding in the matter after Nawaz Sharif and members of his family challenged the revival of the references and requested the court to quash the cases.