Court Returns Plot Allotment Reference Against Nawaz Sharif To NAB

Muhammad Irfan Published February 16, 2023 | 07:31 PM

An accountability court on Thursday returned a plot allotment reference against former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and others to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Feb, 2023 ) :An accountability court on Thursday returned a plot allotment reference against former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and others to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The court held that the matter did not fall under its jurisdiction as per amended National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).

Accountability Court Judge Rao Abdul Jabbar passed the orders while disposing of seven different applications, filed by Yousaf Abbas and other relatives of Nawaz Sharif, against auction of assets, owned by the former prime minister.

Yousaf Abbas and others had filed applications, stating that the court declared Nawaz Sharif as an absconder over non-appearance in the matter and ordered to auction his properties. They submitted that their rights would also be affected if the properties of the former premier were auctioned. They submitted that after the new amendment, the case did not fall within the jurisdiction of NAB and the accountability court, as the amount involved in the reference was less than Rs 500 million.

They submitted that the order, passed by the court for auction of the assets owned by the former prime minister, could not be implemented since it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. They asked the court to immediately suspend its order for auction of the assets.

It is pertinent to mention that the court had already acquitted Jang /Geo group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman and two other accused in the plot allotment case.

The NAB had alleged that Mir Shakil obtained illegal exemption of 54 plots of one-kanal each in Johar Town Lahore, with the connivance of Nawaz Sharif, the then chief minister of Punjab, in violation of the exemption policy in 1986. The bureau had also alleged that Humayun Faiz, and Mian Bashir Ahmed, facilitated the illegal plot allotment.