In its 5-0 ruling, the apex court incorporated an additional note by Justice Athar Minallah, stating that the federal government’s appeal is not maintainable. However, he also noted that the intra-court appeals of private parties have been accepted for hearing.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, approved the government’s appeals regarding the NAB amendments and declared the amendments valid. The court reinstated the changes made to the NAB laws during the previous PDM-led government.
The ruling also overturned the majority decision by former Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and retired Justice Ijazul Ahsan, which had nullified the amendments.
The verdict on the intra-court appeals challenging the nullification of the NAB amendments was reserved by a five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court on June 6.
Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi authored a separate additional note, further elaborating on the court’s findings.
A five-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, and comprising Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, had earlier reserved the verdict on June 6 after five hearings.
Today, the verdict was announced by CJP Isa, who read the final paragraph of the reserved verdict.
On September 15, 2023, a three-member SC bench led by former CJ Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah nullified the NAB law amendments introduced during the PML-N-led coalition government by a majority vote of 2 to 1.
The third member of the bench, Justice Shah, had penned a dissenting note.
The bench had allowed former prime minister Imran Khan’s petition challenging amendments made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, and ordered the restoration of corruption cases against public officeholders that were withdrawn following the tweaks.
The apex court had also ordered the reopening of all corruption cases worth less than Rs500 million that were previously closed against political leaders from various parties and public officeholders. The court had declared the amendments null and void.
Furthermore, the top court had directed NAB to return all case records to the relevant courts within seven days. The SC had noted that the NAB amendments in question had impacted the rights of the public as outlined in the Constitution.
The order, announced by Justice Bandial in his final session before retirement, stated, “By a majority of 2:1 (Justice Shah dissenting), Constitution Petition No.21 of 2022 is allowed. The court has also invalidated the judgments issued by the accountability courts based on the amended laws.”