ISLAMABAD: An application was submitted in the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday requesting an early hearing of a petition seeking to annul the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999.
Advocate AK Dogar filed the application requesting the top court to fix his petition for hearing at the earliest.
Earlier, he had also filed the petition in the SC challenging the Lahore High Court (LHC) decision that upheld NAO.
The petitioner stated that the NAB Ordinance lapsed after the 18th Amendment and appealed to the SC to declare LHC’s decision null and void. “Thousands of people have been arrested under the law which is no longer infield,” he argued.
Earlier, the LHC bench had upheld the legality of the NAB Ordinance. “NAB Ordinance is an effective law. It holds and has neither been dissolved nor have any changes been made to it.”
“The NAB Ordinance will be effective till any amendments are made to it,” the court had observed.
Last year, on Dec 20, the SC warned that if NAO 1999 is not amended until the first week of February, it will pass an order in this regard.
An apex court bench headed by Sheikh Azmat Saeed was hearing a suo motu case pertaining to sections of the NAB law that allow a corrupt person to enter into a plea bargain with the anti-graft watchdog by voluntarily returning the illegally earned money.
