The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan against the NAB amendments till the following day, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
“In the NAB amendments, the definition of benamidar has been changed,” Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Atta Bandial remarked during the hearing of the case.
“Assets beyond means is the issue in the case of benamidar. Now it has been said you must first prove that those assets were built through corruption,” he said.
“Action against benamidar is the centre of the accountability process. At least this has to be fixed the assets were not built through corruption,” he added.
“It is not enough to level an accusation against a benamidar to prove corruption,” Makhdoom Ali Khan Advocate argued before the court.
“The function of the court is to harmonise the law. It seems that having assets beyond means is not a serious crime anymore. If this is to be done, having assets beyond means from known sources should be removed from the category of crime,” the CJP remarked.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that Parliament’s legislation could only be reviewed. “The Supreme Court should leave this matter to the new assembly,” he added.
“The NAB amendments were applied from the past. That whole exercise is (now) over,” lawyer Khawaja Harris said to the court.
Reporter: Amanat Gishkori