PESHAWAR: Restraining the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakhtun-khwa from arresting directors of steel mills in the province, a division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday asked the NAB to explain whether the bureau has the mandate under the National Accountability Ordinance to recover electricity dues for Pesco in the province.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali issued the restraining order in writ petitions filed by directors of Steel Mills situated in Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate including Yaqoob Mirza, Sohail Lateef Siddiqui and Mehboob Rasool through their lawyer Shomail Ahmad Butt.
The bench stopped the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from arresting directors of Steel Mills including Siddiqui Steel Mills and SS Furnis Steel Mills.
The bench asked the Additional Deputy Prosecutor General NAB KP, Umar Farooq, to accept notice and submit reply in the petitions to explain if the NAB had the mandate under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) to recover dues of the electricity bills for Pesco in the province.
During the course of hearing, Justice Nisar Hussain Khan observed that the question arises whether the NAB had the mandate to recover electricity bills for electric power companies, and said the court would see it.
The petitioners’ lawyer submitted that it was on record that the NAB prosecutor had admitted in the court that the NAB has no jurisdiction to recover electricity dues for the electric companies. However, the NAB prosecutor submitted that the bureau had signed MoU with the Ministry of Power to recover the dues worth Rs65 billion in the country. He said that before it, the NAB had also recovered the electricity dues for the government and now again the bureau signed the MoU on the request of the federal government.
About the facts of the case, he said the petitioners established the industries in Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate after the government announced incentives.
