Pakistan's anti-graft body moves to reopen corruption case against Nawaz Sharif, Zardar, others
Islamabad (PTI): Pakistan's accountability watchdog has decided in principle to revive corruption charges against prominent political figures, including ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari after the Supreme Court scrapped the recent amendments to anti-graft laws.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted a record of graft cases to accountability the courts, asking them to reopen corruption cases involving amounts less than Rs 500 million, the Dawn newspaper reported on Thursday.
Last week, Pakistan's Supreme Court scrapped the recent amendments to the country's anti-graft laws, restoring corruption cases against public office holders, including former president Asif Ali Zardari and ex-premiers Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Yusuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
The apex court was announcing its reserved decision on jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's plea filed last year, challenging the amendments made to the accountability laws by the then government led by former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Among other things, the amendments limited the jurisdiction of the NAB to cases involving over Rs 500 million.
According to the report, the accountability watchdog wrote to the Federal Investigation Agency, anti-corruption departments in all provinces, banking courts, and the police, asking them to return all cases referred to these departments following the new amendments.
The decision to approach all courts and departments was made in a recent meeting presided over by NAB Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed Butt, the report said, quoting a source.
"The NAB headquarters has submitted an application before the registrar [of] accountability court Islamabad for [the] reopening of closed cases," the source said, adding that all regional headquarters of the accountability watchdog have also approached regional accountability courts for the purpose.
The report said that the accountability courts had returned white-collar crime cases involving less than Rs 500 million to the watchdog after the new amendments.
The restoration of the old law has reopened cases of several politicians, including former president Asif Ali Zardari and ex-premiers Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Yusuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Shaukat Aziz.
Nawaz Sharif, 73, who is set to return on October 21, ending his self-exile in London, where the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo has lived since 2019, may see the restoration of a Toshakhana case.
In 2020, an accountability court declared him a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana vehicles reference. Zardari, 68, and Gilani, 71, are also accused in the same case.
In the case, the NAB accused Nawaz Sharif and Zardari of illegally retaining expensive vehicles gifted to them by various foreign countries and dignitaries instead of depositing them in the Toshakhana. According to the country's top anti-corruption body, Gilani, during his tenure as Prime Minister, facilitated Zardari in retaining the vehicles.
Abbasi may face the LNG terminal case, while Ashraf will face the rental power corruption case.
Other bigwigs whose cases have been reopened are former federal ministers Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Kh Asif, Rana Sanaullah, ex-chief minister Punjab Hamza Shehbaz, Faryal Talpur, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Javed Latif, Akrum Durrani, Saleem Mandviwalla, according to the report.
They all benefited under the new law as the trial of those accused with less than Rs 500 million of alleged corruption was stopped.
The NAB is expected to submit the record of all cases to the court in the next two days in order to resume hearings, Economy.pk news portal reported.
The coalition government had made several changes in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance of 1999 through the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act 2022, which Khan challenged in June last year.
These included reducing the term of the NAB chairman and prosecutor general to three years, limiting the anti-graft watchdog's jurisdiction to cases involving over Rs 500 million, and transferring all pending inquiries, investigations, and trials to the relevant authorities.
After prolonged proceedings spanning over 53 hearings, the court concluded the case on September 5 and reserved its judgment, which was declared just a day ahead of the retirement of then-Chief Justice Bandial.
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Rupee hits record intra-day low in early trade, falls 12 paise to 92.37 against US dollar
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee slumped 12 paise to its record low of 92.37 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday as global crude oil prices showed no signs of easing amid the ongoing West Asian conflict.
A stronger greenback, heavy FII selling and weak sentiments in the domestic equity markets further weighed on the rupee, according to forex traders.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the local unit opened at 92.33 and slipped further to hit its record intra-day low of 92.37 against the US dollar, down 12 paise from its previous close.
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The rupee touched a fresh intra-day low of 92.36 on Thursday and closed the session 24 paise down at its lowest level of 92.25 against the US dollar.
"Oil prices remained elevated after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is closed permanently till the resolution of the crisis. The dollar index also rose, European and Asian currencies all fell against the dollar," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.
The rupee has remained vulnerable and in the absence of the RBI could have reached 93.00 levels, he added.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.04 per cent higher at 99.77.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 4.99 per cent at USD 96.57 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex plunged 560.06 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 75,474.36, while the Nifty tanked 184.45 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 23,454.70.
Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 7,049.87 crore on a net basis on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, retail inflation moved up to 3.21 per cent in February compared to 2.74 per cent in the preceding month, driven mainly by higher food prices, government data released on Thursday showed.
