Pakistan: Accountability agency reopens cases against ex-Balochistan CMs

Islamabad [Pakistan], September 23 : Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has reopened corruption cases against 65 accused including three former chief ministers of Balochistan, ARY News reported.
According to ARY News, the anti-corruption agency submitted records of all corruption references against the 65 accused persons of the court.
The agency has also restarted investigation into more than 30 graft cases and several parliamentarians and senior government officers will be included in the investigation after the move, sources added.
As per the Pakistan-based media outlet, the senior officials of NHA, Customs, QDA, Revenue officers, Mines and Minerals, PDMA, food and health departments were also included in the probe.
Moreover, the investigation against several housing societies has been launched by NAB.
About 2000 graft cases are expected to be restored after the Pakistan Supreme Court verdict in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law amendments case, Geo News reported on Saturday.
The Pakistani media outlet reported that from the 2000 cases restored, 755 were returned at the inquiry stage and 292 at the investigation stage, according to sources, which added that around 510 cases were of less than PKR 500 million and 168 cases pertained to assets beyond known source of income.
Similarly, 213 cases stand restored as per Section 9A, while 89 cases are related to fraud.
Pakistan’s Apex Court has approved the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan’s petition challenging amendments made to the country’s accountability laws during the tenure of the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)- led government, Geo News reported on Friday.
The three-member bench, headed by CJP Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, held more than 50 hearings on PTI chief Khan's petition against the amendments and reserved the judgment on the hearing on September 5.
The Pakistan-based news outlet reported that the Supreme Court in its verdict restored graft cases against public office holders that were closed down following the amendments.
The apex court ordered the restoration all graft cases worth less than Rs500 million that were closed down against the political leaders belonging to different political parties and public office holders and declared the amendments void.
These include the Toshakhana reference against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Supremo Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, along with the LNG reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the rental power reference against former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Geo News reported.
Additionally, the court directed the NAB to return all records related to cases to relevant courts within seven days.