IHC rejects petition against Shehbaz as PAC head.

Byline: Shahid Rao

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamabad High Court Tuesday turned down a petition challenging the appointment of Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

A Division Bench (DB) of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani announced the verdict which it had reserved on December 31 after hearing the petition moved by Riaz Hanif Rahi Advocate.

The dual bench rejected the petition by terming the same as non-maintainable.

During the previous hearing, Justice Athar Minallah had remarked that anyone who has been accused is innocent until the case is proved against him in the court. He added that it is an internal matter of the Parliament. The IHC CJ said that it is a political matter and they could not ignore Article 69 of the Constitution.

The petitioner moved the court through his counsel GM Chaudhary Advocate.

He adopted in the petition that Shehbaz' appointment as the PAC chairman is illegal while issuance of the PML-N leader's production orders was also a violation of accountability laws and a reference should be prepared regarding the violation of Section 31 of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance. The petitioner requested the court to direct the Punjab chief secretary to take Shehbaz into custody and hand over his custody to concerned law enforcing agency.

He contended that as long as there is a conflict of interest, Shehbaz should not be allowed to lead PAC and all benefits of being a PAC chairman should be revoked.

The petitioner prayed to the court that Shehbaz may be directed to show under which authority of the law and the constitution, he is chairing the meeting of the PAC in violation of provisions of the Code of...