Overview
- A three-judge Supreme Court bench led by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar on July 16 reserved its verdict on whether pending National Accountability Bureau (NAB) bail petitions and appeals must go to the new Federal Constitutional Court (FCC).
- The Attorney General told the court that after the March amendment the FCC should hear all NAB matters including bail, arguing past practice shows the top court sometimes decides bail after reviewing case merits.
- Defence counsel Ibadur Rehman Lodhi countered that the inserted Section 32-A speaks only of a second appeal and is silent on bail, and he urged the Supreme Court not to abandon its constitutional role over interim relief.
- Bench judges repeatedly questioned the legal route for the Supreme Court to keep hearing bail matters when the 27th Amendment established the FCC as the appellate forum and asked counsel for a workable middle ground.
- The ruling will affect where dozens of pending NAB petitions are heard and how accused seek interim relief; the FCC was created by the 27th Constitutional Amendment and Section 32-A was added to the NAB law on March 5 to provide a second appeal.