Asset Recovery Unit functioning without enabling law, argues Rabbani in case against Isa reference.

ISLAMABAD -- Senator Raza Rabbani stunned the Supreme Court on Wednesday by reading out the notification and the terms of reference (ToR) for formation of the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) and arguing that the organisation was functioning without an enabling law.

'Can these notifications or ToR override Article 209 - a constitutional provision,' wondered Raza Rabbani, terming the inquiry conducted by the ARU a witch-hunt.

Senator Rabbani is representing the Sindh Bar Council before a 10-judge Supreme Court bench hearing a set of challenges to the filing of the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

Reading out the Nov 6, 2018, notification, the counsel argued that the cabinet had decided to establish an asset recovery unit for the recovery of unlawful offshore assets. The purpose behind setting up the agency was not the collection of material, but to conduct an inquiry.

The ToR suggests, the counsel argued, that the ARU could procure or pursue evidence or trace and detect information regarding Pakistani citizens with the help of NAB, FIA, FBR and law enforcement agencies.

But the most horrific aspect of the ToR is section 7 as it empowers the unit to request any intelligence agency at the federal government's command to assist it in the collection of material, particularly against judges, Raza Rabbani said.

This amounts to giving a carte blanche to intelligence agencies to invade the privacy of any individual and strengthening the executive's hand against judges, the counsel contended.

To a query, Mr Rabbani said he did not know of any other organisation in the world with such vast, unbridled powers.

The counsel stressed that the ARU had carried out a thorough investigation against Justice Isa, citing a May 10, 2019, letter written by the unit to the law ministry in which it had conceded that since the complainant, Abdul Hameed Dogar, had not provided enough evidence, it conducted an investigation and was in the process of forwarding the findings to the law minister.

When Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah asked who had authorised the unit to conduct the inquiry, the counsel replied that the ARU chairman initiated the inquiry on his own.

Justice Maqbool Baqar remarked it was surprising that a law had armed a subordinate agency with such vast powers.

Senator Rabbani cited the government's Rules of Business to suggest the law itself had not given such powers to the ARU. 'The real ministerial powers rest with the prime minister alone.'

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