LAHORE – A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Monday sought a reply from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) within three weeks on a petition challenging closure of 60 references against politicians and bigwigs on directions of the NAB chairman.
The bench consisting of Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry and Justice Ahmad Farooq Sheikh issued the orders on a petition filed by Rana Ilmddin submitting that according to media reports, criminal references against various politicians were dropped, which were prepared during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif’s second term as the prime minister.
The report said that no headway was made in investigation of these references during 2000 to 2002 and the chairman instead of inquiring into them was going to close them on the plea that no action was taken on them for a long time. The petitioner said that previously, NAB had also attempted to close criminal references in which mostly Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders were accused.
He said that no headway was made into the investigation during tenure of former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf. Ilmddin said that it was painful that parliamentarians create hue and cry over rampant corruption in government departments while the NAB was silently closing references against top politicians.
He said that the alleged action of the NAB chairman also points fingers on his appointment. The petitioner requested the court to seek record of the references to know what progress was made on them and also determine whether the chairman has the authority to close them without resorting to the court of law.
