SC to hear NAB appeal cases from today

Updated at: 0734 PST, Monday, December 21, 2009 ISLAMABAD: At a time when a lager bench of the Supreme Court termed NRO void ab initio, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Saturday constituted a three-member bench to hear NAB appeal cases regarding conviction and acquittal at the principal seat Islamabad in the week commencing from Monday, 21 December 2009, Geo news reported. These cases stood revived in pursuance to the judgment of Supreme Court of Pakistan dated 16 December 2009 passed by the larger bench in the constitutional petition numbers 76 to 80 of 2007 and 59 of 2009. Dr. Mubashir Hassan, Roedad Khan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, M Tariq Asad and Syed Feroz Shah Gillani Vs Federation of Pakistan and others, is regarding NRO cases. Chief Justice of Pakistan will head a three-member bench. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Khiliji Arif Hussain will be other judges of the said bench. The cases of Ch Zahoor Hussain, Agha Siraj Ahmed Durrani, Adnan A Khawaja, Baz Muhammad, Muhammad Nazir and many others will be heard accordingly. The government of Pakistan has been made party in all the cases. Abdul Hafeez Pirzada will appear before the court representing Agha Siraj Durrani on Tuesday. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Additional Prosecutor General Abdul Baseer Qureshi and acting Attorney General Shah Khawar will appear before the court. NAB’s former Deputy Prosecutor General Zulfikar Bhutta informed TheNation that all the cases pending in the apex court would be heard. All the cases were filed in the court before promulgation of NRO in 2007, he explained. Earlier, the apex court stroked down NRO and ordered reopening of all cases in the country and abroad, replacement of NAB Chairman, Prosecutor General and action against former attorney general of Pakistan Malik Muhammad Qayyum for transgressing his authority.