The Supreme Court has barred all accountability courts from pronouncing final verdicts in all cases.
The apex court issued the directions that the final verdicts should not be pronounced on trials in any case till the next hearing. It also rejected lawyer Farooq H Naek's request for suspending the order nullifying the NAB law amendments.
After the detailed decision of the Practice and Procedure Act is issued, the intra-court appeal against the amendments to the NAB law can be fixed, the court announced.
It also issued notices to the PTI chairman, attorney general, and all advocate generals.
Earlier today, the court resumed hearing an intra-court appeal against its decision to nullify the NAB law amendments.
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa is hearing the appeals. The bench also includes Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Aminuddin, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel and Justice Azhar Rizvi.
Under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, this is the first intra-court appeal against an SC decision.
Former chief justice Umar Ata Bandial had declared the NAB law amendments of 2022 null and void on an application of former prime minister Imran Khan. The federal government had filed an appeal against the annulment under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act.
Lawyer Farooq H Naek argued that the decision was given without making his client a party who is an accused in NAB cases. Two review petitions and an appeal had been filed against it.
Justice Minallah asked how the federal government was an aggrieved party under the decision against the NAB law amendments.
Naek responded that only the forum for proceedings had changed under the NAB amendments
The CJP told the lawyer to wait till a detailed verdict on the Practice and Procedure Act and then the appeal can be fixed.
The lawyer said that by then the accountability courts would have decided many cases, and asked for suspending the decision declaring the NAB amendments null and void.
Only the forum changes whether the amendments are declared null and void or not, Justice Minallah said, adding that if a stay order is issued, everything will come to a halt.
The CJP asked if the decision to nullify has affected all amendments to the NAB law. Naek said the third amendment has not been tampered with, while some clauses in the first and second amendments have been repealed and some remain.
The ground relied upon in the majority judgment is related to the third amendment, Justice Minallah remarked, asking how a decision could be given without touching the third amendment.
The third amendment clearly states that the charges will be tried elsewhere, the judge stated, adding the third amendment is important because it provided protection to the proceedings in the accountability court.
Farooq H Naek pleaded to suspend paragraph 49 of the judgment. To which Justice Minallah remarked that this meant the cases of his client will go to another forum, adding the third amendment was very clear that the trial will have to go somewhere.
The hearing was adjourned indefinitely.
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