Cases disposed of under NRO revived: LHC
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has observed that there is no need to pass any formal order to revive a case disposed of under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) as all such cases stood revived automatically after the Supreme Court verdict, annulling the said ordinance.
An LHC division bench, consisting of Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Justice Shahid Hameed Dar, gave this observation while disposing of an application filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to restore its appeal against acquittal of Hashim Babar, former director of the Military Lands and Cantonment Board, Hakim Ali Zardari and his wife, Dr Zareen Ara Zardari, (parents of President Asif Ali Zardari).
All the three respondents were impleaded in a NAB reference about illegal allotment of a plot. An accountability court had acquitted them, however, NAB had challenged the acquittal orders in the LHC.
Later, after the promulgation of the NRO, the LHC dismissed on April 22, 2008, the NAB’s appeal. And now NAB had moved an application to revive its dismissed appeal.
The division bench ruled that in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court, the appeal against three accused stood revived to its position as was before the April 22, 2008 orders.
“So there is no need to pass any formal order for the revival of the appeal because under Article 189 of the Constitution, all judgments of the apex court are binding on all subordinate courts,” the court observed.
According to NAB, Hashim Babar was accused of allotting a land near Ayub National Park, Rawalpindi, to Hakim Ali Zardari, former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, and his wife, Dr Zareen Ara Zardari.
The NAB alleged that the Cantonment Board had declined permission for the installation of a petrol pump on the said land for security reasons, but Hashim favoured Mr and Mrs Zardari by accepting their appeal, however, the petrol pump was never constructed. The NAB said Hashim misused his powers by allowing the construction of petrol pump on government land.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/24/2010
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