ISLAMABAD - Accepting the petition of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan against the appointment of Admiral (retd) Fasih Bukhari as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, a three-member bench, headed by Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jilani, referred the matter to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for constituting a larger bench.
The court directed Attorney General Irfan Qadir to submit a comprehensive reply along with the record about the consultation process with the leader of the opposition on the appointment of the NAB chairman.
During the hearing, counsel for NAB Chairman Fasih Bukhari, Asma Jahangir, argued that this petition was not maintainable because no right of the petitioner was affected in this matter. She also said that jurisdiction of Article 184 (3) should not be expanded much as there were other institutions to take up the matter.
Asma questioned when the consultation process regarding the NAB chairman was not mentioned in the law, why the office of the chief justice was being made controversial in this regard.
Likewise, Attorney General Irfan Qadir said he had reservations over the court’s judgments in Asfandyar Wali, Shahid Orakzai and NRO cases. He requested the SC to constitute a larger bench to revisit all these judgments.
The AG said that it was not the court’s job to remove the officials because no consultation was done with the chief justice for their appointments. He further said there was no role of the CJP in the administrative appointments. The AG requested the court to constitute a larger bench in this matter as well.
Earlier, citing various judgments of the Supreme Court, counsel for the applicant, Akram Sheikh, said no meaningful consultation process was done with the leader of the opposition regarding the appointment of the incumbent chairman NAB. He said no consultation was done with the chief justice in this regard, which was a violation of the court’s judgment in the NRO case.
“Only those who enjoy impeccable reputation and can uphold principles for fair, transparent, just, legal, equitable and constitutional accountability of individuals and entities should be appointed”, he added.
Hearing of the case was adjourned until the first week of January.