ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Justice Asif Saeed Khosa recused himself on Monday from the three-member bench that was to hear the appeal of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the decision of the Lahore High Court quashing the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case against the Sharif family.
As the hearing began, Justice Khosa remarked that it could be the fault of the court office that the case was put up in front of him, as he had already spoken his mind on the subject in the Panama Papers case and it would thus not be appropriate for him to adjudicate the case.
He observed further that he had written 14 paras on the Hudaibiya case in the April 20 judgment of the Panama case, adding that he had observed to reopen the case in his judgment and ordered NAB to reopen the case. He said it appears that the Registrar office has not read his judgement in the Panama Case.
During the hearing, the NAB prosecutor requested that the case should be taken up next week after formation of a new bench. Justice Khosa however said that constitution of the new bench and fixation of the date for hearing was the prerogative of the Chief Justice of the supreme court.
The bench, headed by Justice Khosa and comprising Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, was constituted on Friday.
The Sharif family had earlier decided to challenge the bench of the Apex court formed for hearing the NAB appeal seeking reopening of the Hudaibiya papers mills reference. However the lawyers of the Sharif family did not file the application following Justice Khosa’s inability to head the bench.
On September 20, NAB filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the LHC decision, naming former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his brothers Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and late Abbas Sharif, their mother Shamim Akhter, Shehbaz’s son and MNA Hamza Shehbaz, Nawaz’s daughter Maryam, and others as respondents.
The NAB in the reference has pleaded the Supreme Court to dismiss the LHC decision to quash the case and order a reinvestigation into the scam as per the new evidence which surfaced in the Panama case Joint Investigation Team report.
