NAB judgement.

IN a landmark judgement, the Islamabad High Court has termed the NAB chairman's arbitrary powers to order arrests as contrary to the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. This observation was part of the detailed judgement on the bail petition of officers of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. The judgement says 'there must be sufficient incriminating material to justify arresting an accused...' and that 'mere allegations of misuse of authority would not justify depriving an accused of liberty because an irregularity or wrong decision sans criminal intent, mens rea and illegal gain or benefit does not attract the offences'.

This judgement could not have come at a better time. Over the years, it has been established without doubt that the sweeping powers of arrest given to the chairman of NAB by the NAB Ordinance have been used recklessly and often on flimsy grounds to incarcerate citizens. It has often transpired that NAB investigators could not produce any substantive evidence against the accused even after keeping him or her in prison for long periods of time. More often than not, NAB prosecutors could not convince the judges why they needed to keep an accused in prison when the detainee was willing to cooperate with them in the investigation. The abuse of this power of arrest manifested itself at various levels: first, NAB...