The Islamabad High Court on Monday declared a petition against the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) call-up notices served to former prime minister Imran Khan and former first lady Bushra Bibi in the Toshakhana case as maintainable.
The two-member bench headed by Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Thaman Rifat Imtiaz announced the reserved verdict on the petition filed by Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi against the NAB notices.
Khawaja Haris represented the ex-PM and his wife Bushra Bibi in the court.
During the hearing, the court asked NAB’s prosecutor if they had dispatched another notice to Imran Khan, to which the prosecutor replied that they had sent a reminder notice to the former premier.
The chief justice stated that the notices sent by NAB did not reflect the implementation of the court’s decision and inquired whether Imran Khan had appeared before the accountability watchdog.
The court was informed that the suspect did not show up but responded to notice in writing.
Imran’s lawyer expressed doubt that the NAB could convert the ongoing inquiry into a full-fledged investigation.
He recalled that the anti-graft watchdog served notices to his clients a day after Aftab Sultan resigned as the bureau’s chairman, noting that Sultan had confessed that he was being pressurized.
The chief justice remarked that after amendments in the NAB laws, the anti-graft watchdog could only take up cases of graft of over Rs500 million, while Haris said that according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) records, the alleged graft by ex-PM was less than this amount.
After this exchange, the court issued notice to NAB while declaring the petition maintainable.
