Larger bench to hear plea against Sharifs’ conviction

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court single bench Thursday referred to the chief justice a petition challenging conviction of former premier Nawaz Sharif and his family members under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 for constitution of a larger bench to ascertain the legal issue whether prevailing NAB law has been abolished or not.

Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi observed that the legal points raised in the petition were important in nature and required to be heard by a larger bench.

Senior lawyer AK Dogar has assailed the conviction of Sharifs under the existing NAB Ordinance.

The lawyer pleaded that the former premier Nawaz Sharif and others had been convicted by a court which had no jurisdiction because the law under which it (court) had been created was a dead law. He stated that the high court should suspend the operation of the accountability court’s judgment for being a court established under a non-extent law.

Questioning the validity of the NAB law, advocate Dogar argued that the ordinance was promulgated by then military dictator/president Pervez Mush arraf under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) No 1 of 1999 as well as order No 9 of 1999.