SC to decide Badar’s stay plea today

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Secretary General Jehangir Badar on Wednesday filed an application in the Supreme Court (SC) seeking an immediate conjunction against the judge of an accountability court who is likely to announce the verdict in a NAB case against Badar today.

The application has been filed through Badar’s lawyer Senator Latif Khan Khosa wherein he has maintained that the accountability court in Lahore would pronounce its decision against Jehangir Badar in a NAB reference on Thursday (today) whereas a connected petition by Badar was lying pending in the Supreme Court for several weeks.

So an instant stay order should be issued restricting the judge from announcing the judgement till the adjudication of the pending matter.

Supreme Court sources confirmed that Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui approved the application and the matter would be heard by a two-member bench consisting of the chief justice and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar today (Thursday).

Badar has been accused of making illegal appointments during his tenure as petroleum minister. He was also accused of issuing illegal licenses for petrol pumps and facilitating irregular payments to contractors. The National Accountability Bureau filed a reference against him in Accountability Court No II Lahore.

The NAB authorities produced a number of witnesses during the two and half years the case was being tried. Meanwhile, Jehangir Badar filed an application in the accountability court seeking a complete record of the ministry. Badar contented that the case was very old and he doubted the authenticity of the record produced by the prosecution. He said that it was his right to see the complete record of the case under Section 14 of the NAB Ordinance. However the judge dismissed this application. An appeal against the decision was also dismissed by a division bench of the Lahore High Court. Afterwards Badar challenged the decision in the Supreme Court. His appeal has been pending but the accountability court is about to announce its judgement.

Khosa told Daily Times that if the petition was not heard on Thursday early in the morning, it would become inconsequential after the announcement of accountability court’s judgement. staff report

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