Plea against Brig Imtiaz’s acquittal: NAB must determine assets beyond limit, says SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday dismissed a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeal against acquittal of former director general (DG) Intelligence Bureau (IB) Brigadier (retd) Imtiaz in the assets beyond income case.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Yahya Afridi, heard the NAB petition against the acquittal of Brig (retd) Imtiaz.

During the course of proceedings, the chief justice remarked that determining the assets beyond the limits was the duty of the anti-corruption body but it did not determine the total value of assets in the case.

The NAB prosecutor argued that it was the duty of the accused to clarify their assets on which, the Chief Justice remarked that the same issue was lingering in the courts until 2011, in all the cases presented by the NAB while the SC in its verdict had clarified that it was duty of the anti-graft body to prove the assets beyond the limits. The anti-graft body’s lawyer contended that the accused’s wife, Nasreen Imtiaz was a benamidar, on which the chief justice remarked that proving the assets beyond limits was the first and base of the case before proving the benamidar and if the first base was missing, being the benamidar was not a crime.

He asked who Adnan Khawaja was and what he did. The counsel of Adnan Khawaja while responding to the CJ query said that his client was a businessman who also owned a factory. The NAB prosecutor saidthat Adnan Khawaja was a benamidar of Brigadier (retd) Imtiaz and he (Adnan Khawaja) brought a shop from an amount provided by the former DG IB. Brigadier Imtiaz’ counsel said that the case was based on a mala fide intention.

The chief justice remarked if the properties were made on an illegal source of income, the prosecution must prove it. The SC retained the High Court verdict regarding the acquittal of Brigadier (R) Imtiaz, his wife, Nasreen Imtiaz, and Adnan K Khawaja.