ISLAMABAD – Hearing petitions against the appointment of Justice (r) Syed Deedar Hussain Shah as National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa of the Supreme Court (SC) remarked on Monday that it seemed as if the law ministry was unaware of the law under which the appointment of the NAB chairman was made.
A three-member bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa was hearing identical petitions against the appointment.
Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, counsel for the government, told the court that parliament had ended the chief justice’s role in the appointment of the NAB chairman through the 18th Amendment. He said the petitions were not maintainable and under Article 148 of the Constitution, the SC had no jurisdiction to hear the case, as a petition of similar nature was pending in the Sindh High Court (SHC).
He requested the SC to refer the matter to the SHC so that the right of appeal would remain with the government. Shahid Orakzai, one of the petitioners, contended that a 70-year-old retired judge could not be appointed NAB chairman according to Article 207 of the Constitution. He said though the government had re-issued a notification for the appointment of NAB chairman, it had not consulted the National Assembly (NA) opposition leader on the matter.
Muhammad Akram Sheikh, counsel for NA Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said that two different notifications were issued for the appointment of NAB chairman, one of which had been withdrawn. In the second, however, the government still had not fulfilled the legal requirements.
