Shakir Awan
Lahore (August 7, 2017): A petition was filed in Supreme Court challenging the apex court decision of appointing Justice Ijazul Ahsan as ‘monitoring judge’ for the proceedings of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and accountability courts in cases involving disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif, members of his family and former finance minister Ishaq Dar in the light of the Panama Papers case investigations.
Barrister Zafarullah Khan has filed the petition in Lahore Registry of the apex court.
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He argued that due to monitoring by a judge of apex court the trail court will be under pressure. He said that the apex court had not power to appoint its judge for monitoring of NAB references and cases.
He pleaded the court to remove the judge from the monitoring duty as it would be against the fair trial ensured in the constitution.
It is to be mentioned here that as per the Panamagate verdict, the apex court had appointed Justice Ahsan to monitor the filing of references and their trail in the accountability court.
According to a notification issued by the Supreme Court on last Wednesday, the chief justice appointed Justice Ahsan to supervise and monitor the implementation of the July 28 “judgement in letter and spirit and oversee the proceedings conducted by NAB and the accountability court”.
The appointment was made in pursuance of the verdict in the Panama Papers case.
“As Justice Ijazul Ahsan, monitoring judge, is currently abroad, therefore, till his return, the chief justice has been pleased to order that Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan shall act on his behalf,” the notification added.
In the light of the verdict, NAB, which once appeared reluctant to proceed against the Sharif family, decided on July 31 to file references against the former prime minister, his children, son-in-law retired Capt Mohammed Safdar and Mr Dar.
The apex court, during the Panama Papers case hearings, had expressed serious reservations on NAB’s performance over not pursuing cases against the Sharif family.
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