New bench to hear Hudabiya case

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has formed a new bench to hear the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeal regarding reinvestigation into Hudabiya Paper Mills case against the family of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The three-judge panel, headed by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Mian Alam Khel, will take up the plea against three-year-old verdict of the Lahore High Court (LHC) to quash Hudabiya Paper Mills reference against the Sharif family. It will take up the case on Nov.28.

Earlier, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa distanced himself from the petition for having already expressed his opinion on it in the verdict in the

Panama Papers case.

The previous bench had then referred the case back to the chief justice for formation of another panel to hear the case, which was subsequently adjourned for an indefinite period.

Almost 17 years ago, the NAB had claimed that Sharif and his family received over Rs1 billion through illegal and fraudulent means and that they were liable to be tried under anti-corruption laws.

In 2014, the LHC trashed the Hudabiya Paper Mills reference against the Sharifs. The NAB did not challenge in the Supreme Court the LHC order.

The former prime minister, his daughter Maryam, late father Mian Muhammad Sharif, brothers Shahbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif, Abbas’s wife Sabiha, Nawaz’s son Hussain, and Shahbaz’s son Hamza, had been accused of receiving ill-gotten money in the case.