ISLAMABAD: The government’s top legal minds met at the office of the Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) on Thursday to ponder over a number of legal issues, including reopening of the Hudaibya Paper Mills corruption case against the Sharif family.
The meeting was attended by AGP Khalid Jawed Khan, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar and Senator Syed Ali Zafar.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had recently tasked his legal team to consider initiating a fresh investigation into the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibya Paper Mills (HPM) case against the Sharif family.
On Jan 5, 2018, the Supreme Court had rejected a review petition filed by the National Accountability Bureau in the HPM reference. It had held that the legal process had been abused and due process was denied to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and other respondents through “protracted” proceedings.
Insiders believe an option to reopen the HPM case exists and the possibility is available within the Supreme Court’s judgement to reinitiate the matter since no adjudication in the case was ever done.
Although the government needs to be careful while figuring out how to order reinvestigation in the controversial case in view of quashment by the Lahore High Court of the NAB reference as well as rejection of the bureau’s review petition by the Supreme Court, the matter will be examined in detail before a decision is taken to reopen the contentious issue.
Even if a decision is taken in favour of reopening the case, it will still be the privilege of the government either to give a nod for reopening or dropping the matter altogether.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has been emphasising since coming to power that no discrimination should be made against anyone, be it opposition leaders or members of the ruling party, but if some reference or case is pending against any one, then it should be pursued with full force, they said.
Asked about the meeting, Senator Ali Zafar told media he had no information, but suggested that investigation in a case can be reopened if fresh evidence has surfaced after the closure.
Citing the example of murder cases, the senator said the law permits reinvestigation if new witness or evidence or DNA report has thrown fresh light on the matter.
In reply to a question about the Rawalpindi Ring Road scam, Senator Zafar said it was heartening to note that the ruling party had halted the multi-billion rupee project and ordered an investigation after allegations about corruption came to the government’s notice.
An inquiry has still to be done in the matter, he explained, and then the case will be brought before a trial court, preferably by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). “We should appreciate the culture introduced by the PTI government that corruption should not be tolerated at any level.”
Senator Ali Zafar, however, parried a question about the Jahangir Tareen sugar scam, saying that “the people will know the outcome pretty soon”.
Mirza Shahzad Akbar, the prime minister’s adviser, told reporters after his meeting with the attorney general that any decision to reopen the HPM case would be taken after careful consideration of all aspects since the Supreme Court had already rejected the NAB’s appeal against quashment by Lahore High Court in 2014 of the Hudaibya corruption reference against the Sharif family.
“We have to go through all the legal complications before taking a decision,” he said.
Asked why he met the AGP, Shahzad Akbar said in a lighter vein that he had come for tuition since he was doing his LL.B. again.
Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2021
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