NAB to file supplementary reference against Shehbaz, Fawad: SC told
Shares
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was informed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was in the process of filing a supplementary reference against Shehbaz Sharif, former Punjab chief minister, and Fawad Hasan Fawad, principal secretary to ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing scam.
The NAB prosecutor told the three-member SC bench headed by Justice Shiekh Azmat Saeed, which heard the bail applications of the accused, that the reference had been signed by the NAB chairman.
Azam Nazir Tarar, counsel for the accused, pleaded that during investigation, NAB could establish nothing wrong against his clients, who had been in its custody for long. Similarly, investigations against Bilal Qadwani and Imtiaz Haider, who were arrested in March 2018, had been completed but they were not being released, he claimed.
Meanwhile, Advocate Ali Raza pleaded the court to release his clients Munir Zia and Ali Sajjad Bhuta on bail as NAB had failed to file any reference against them.
On this Justice Azmat remarked that how could an accused be released for not filing a reference by NAB. It the courts followed that rule then no accused, even in murder cases, would be behind the bars, he added.
He said the apex court had already declared that there was a very limited scope of bail in NAB cases. However, in the instant petitions the court would take any decision after hearing the investigation officer, he added.
Subsequently, the bench adjourned the case.
APP
