ZULFIQAR AHMAD

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will start hearing an appeal today (Monday) filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against a Lahore High Court order to quash an investigation into the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills scam against the Sharif family dated 2011.

The Hudaibiya Papers case was filed against the Sharif family members on the orders of Gen Musharraf in light of a 45-page detailed hand-written affidavit on 25 April 2000 given by Ishaq Dar involving Rs 1.2 billion money laundering. But it was shelved after the Sharif brothers left the country after striking a deal with the then chief executive of the country, Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The reopening of this case is said to be the real reason behind Ishaq Dar’s summary departure from the country through a circuitous route – first on government expense to Dushanbe and then privately onto Saudi Arabia where Nawaz Sharif was resident at the time, and then onwards to London; and his refusal to step down as the country’s finance minister while extending his stay in London indefinitely ostensibly for medical reasons, PTI stalwarts told Business Recorder.

“We want the law to prevail and a proper probe into what the Sharifs have done by breaking the law as it involved the taxpayers’ money, and we are hopeful that justice will prevail,” Shafqat Mehmud, PTI’s central secretary information stated.

The confessional statement by Ishaq Dar was recorded before a district magistrate in Lahore. He was brought to the court from jail by Basharat Shahzad, who was then serving as assistant director in Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

About the prospects of the case, former president Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Barrister Ali Zafar said that the affidavit given by Ishaq Dar is the key through which the court can reopen the case.

“The statement of Ishaq Dar was recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which is irrevocable and the case can easily be reopened,” he added.

He said that the affidavit is the most important document and can be made the basis of delaying filing the appeal, and so the Supreme Court can rule.

If there had been no affidavit, he added, the apex court would have to provide some grounds for reopening the case as there is a time limit for reopening a case.

“The general rule is that if anything is filed after the expiry of the time allowed, then there is no question of an appeal being valid. The only way that can be made valid is if the Supreme Court condones the delay,” he contended.

“Now the court will have to come up with some jurisprudence…may be some new jurisprudence to say that the delay is lawful,” he added.

Barrister Zafar argued that Nawaz Sharif was convicted in the plane hijacking case and left for Jeddah after signing a deal with Musharraf without filing any appeal in the case…he filed the appeal after an eight-year hiatus and “the court condoned the delay at his request so that decision may be used against him to condone the delay in filing an appeal in the Hudaibia Papers mills case,” he maintained.

In 2000, NAB filed a reference before an accountability court against Nawaz Sharif, his father Mian Muhammad Sharif, brothers Shehbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif, Abbas’s wife Sabiha, Sharif’s children Maryam and Hussain, and Shahbaz’s son Hamza alleging that the Sharif family members – who constituted the management of Hudabiya Paper Mills – had accumulated Rs1.24 billion through the mills which was both unexplainable and disproportionate to their known sources of income.

In 2011, the respondents filed a writ petition to have the reference quashed and the LHC unanimously ruled in their favour. However, on the matter of reinvestigation, there was a split decision over the competence of NAB to reinitiate proceedings against the petitioners in accordance with the law, and the matter was sent to the chief justice of Pakistan, who in turn referred it to the referee judge for a final verdict.

In 2014, the referee judge quashed the reference against the Sharifs. At that time, NAB made no effort to challenge the LHC verdict in the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar, has formed a Supreme Court bench to hear a reference of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) pertaining to the Sharif family’s Hudaibiya Paper Mills today.

The three-judge bench will be headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa; and it will also comprise Justice Dost Muhammad and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel.

The bench will formally begin hearings on Nov 13. NAB had appealed to the apex court against LHC’s 2014 decision to acquit Nawaz Sharif and several members of his family in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case.

In its appeal, NAB has urged the apex court to set aside the 2014 judgment “in the interest of justice, fair play and equity”.