Staff Reporter
Lahore
The Lahore High Court (LHC) was informed on Wednesday that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has closed down an inquiry, involving misuse of authority, wilful default and asset beyond means, against the Chaudhry brothers of Gujrat.
Director General NAB Saleem Shehzad appeared before the LHC and informed the court that the authority has closed down the ‘assets beyond means’ inquiry against the petitioners. He said that all three inquiries in a 20-year old case reopened against Pakistan Muslim League-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervez Elahi have been closed.
Subsequently, the court disposed of the petitions.
The petitioners, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, had challenged NAB chairman’s authority of reopening the two-decade-old case involving ‘misuse of authority, wilful default and asset beyond means’.
Challenging the case, the leaders had held the stance that NAB is an institution involved in political engineering, and raised questions over its investigative authority. They added that the courts had earlier ruled on NAB’s role and its ‘erroneous methods’ of investigation.They maintained that the anti-corruption unit had launched an investigation against them on the said charges in 2000 but it failed to find evidence against. Chaudhry brothers further said the NAB chief once again ordered a probe in the closed case while he had no authority to do so.
Chaudhry brothers added the order for authorisation of investigation in 2000 was passed in a slipshod manner on two, so-called complaints, of which one was anonymous, while the other lacked the address of the complainant.
Both the leaders said they were being politically victimised, and requested the LHC to declare the NAB’s move to reopen the 20-year-old case illegal.
