ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) against its earlier rejection of his request to club the three accountability references against him into one.
Sharif had earlier petitioned the apex court regarding the clubbing of the corruption references, but the petition was rejected by the SC registrar.
The former PM then appealed against the registrar’s decision, saying that filing three separate references was “illegal, and violates the law and the Constitution, besides being violative of his [Sharif’s] fundamental rights”.
Subsequently, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar held a chamber hearing of the petition and upheld the registrar’s decision, refusing to order the National Accountability Bureau to club the references together.
In today’s petition, Sharif appealed to the apex court to consider the registrar’s objections and the chamber ruling on the matter null and void, and to create a new bench to hear the petition.
The application noted that the Supreme Court, under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, could declare any verdict against the law and so the earlier ruling on the clubbing of references could be considered void.
The application also said that if a verdict is challenged, the court is bound to restart proceedings on the matter. The Federation of Pakistan, NAB, the accountability court, Sharif’s children Maryam, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, and his son-in-law Captain Safdar have all been named respondents in the appeal.
