Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability, Irfan Qadir, said on Thursday that matters of superior court judges could be referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) if they have \u201ccriminal overtones\u201d or an \u201celement of corruption\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National Accountability Ordinance has the jurisdiction and NAB can be referred to \u2026 there is no sacred cow for this law,\u201d Qadir said in a news conference in Islamabad.<\/p>\n
Qadir\u2019s remarks come at a time when Parliament has passed a law to curtail the suo motu powers of the chief justice through the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is only one category,\u201d Qadir said. \u201cAnd that is our superior court judges for whom confusion was created [with regard to laws].\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt was said that their matters were to be referred to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). Today I want to clarify that, yes, [judges\u2019] matters do go to the SJC. However, where there are elements of corruption that attract criminality \u2014 that require criminal proceedings \u2014 it is there that they can be tried under this [accountability] law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Qadir said that in the past several years, even as prime ministers were disqualified and their governments were lost, \u201cour Supreme Court ordered that their cases should be referred to NAB, who should investigate them and file references [against the PMs]\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuperior court judges\u2019 matters will definitely be referred to the SJC, and if there are criminal overtones and an element of corruption \u2026 NAB has jurisdiction and they can look into it. There is no sacred cow [for] this law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former attorney-general also spoke about audios that circulated on social media in February, allegedly linked to a sitting Supreme Court judge. The leaked audios were claimed to contain conversations between the judge and prominent politicians as well as specific lawyers. On May 20, the government formed a three-judge commission under Justice Qazi Faez Isa to investigate the veracity of the clips. Within days, a five-judge bench of the apex court halted the panel\u2019s proceedings.<\/p>\n
Qadir added that it appeared that the judicial system was being \u201cmanipulated by certain people on the outside\u201d and that \u201cthere were indications of an element of corruption\u201d.<\/p>\n
Considering these matters, he said, the government exercised \u201cextreme caution\u201d to form the commission comprising fellow judges to investigate the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a fair opportunity provided to the judges to prove their innocence. If the commission\u2019s report had come out favourable then the matter would not have been referred to the supreme judicial council or the anti-corruption institutions,\u201d Qadir said.<\/p>\n
He added that it was unfortunate that the SC itself ordered a stay on this order.<\/p>\n
He stated that the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023, empowered the SC and protected the chief judge from allegations but instead, the courts formed a bench against the act and stopped it from being instated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government and the parliamentarians tried their best to protect the apex courts from the allegations against the chief,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has the fundamental right where they can stop law-making before it is implemented,\u201d Irfan added while referring to the SC\u2019s stay orders against the act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability, Irfan Qadir, said on Thursday that matters of superior court judges could be referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) if they have \u201ccriminal overtones\u201d or an \u201celement of corruption\u201d. \u201cThe National Accountability Ordinance has the jurisdiction and NAB can be referred to \u2026 there is no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[10518],"class_list":{"0":"post-336261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-irfan-qadir"},"yoast_head":"\n