Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar has constituted a three-member full bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa to hear National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeal against Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict to close Hudaibia Paper Mills case against Sharif family.
The case was fixed for hearing before the bench on Monday. Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel are the other members of the bench.
Notices were issued to NAB and respondents in the case.On September 20, NAB moved the Supreme Court against the LHC decision, naming former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Shehbaz’s son and MNA Hamza Shehbaz, and other family members as respondents.
The NAB 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.
NAB had assured the apex court it would file the appeal during the hearing of Panama case.The Hudaibiya Paper Mills was allegedly used as a cover by the Sharif family to launder money outside the country in the 1990s.
It was in relation to this case that the Sharif family’s trusted aide, Ishaq Dar, recorded a confessional statement on April 25, 2000 in front of a magistrate in Lahore.
On the basis of that confession, a reference was filed by the NAB before an accountability court against the Hudabiya Paper Mills, three Sharif brothers, Dar and others.
That reference was struck down by the Lahore High Court on March 11, 2014 in response to a writ petition filed in 2011 stating that Dar’s confession was coerced. Dar had claimed that he had made the ‘confession’ in duress and disowned the statement.
