ISLAMABAD: Despite publicly opposing the recent Supreme Court restoration of amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, Imran Khan’s legal team on Saturday filed an application in an accountability court seeking the former prime minister’s acquittal in the £190 million case, arguing that the amended law protects decisions made by the federal cabinet.
Imran Khan had previously challenged the amendments introduced by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government. However, these amendments were nullified by a Supreme Court bench led by then-chief justice Umar Ata Bandial on September 15 last year, only to be reinstated later by a bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa following a government review petition.
The application, filed by Barrister Salman Safdar, Usman Riaz Gill, and Zaheer Abbas, argued that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had initiated proceedings against Khan and other accused under political influence. The legal team contended that the case did not fall within the NAO’s jurisdiction, alleging that NAB had overstepped its authority by filing a “false and frivolous reference.” The reference accused Khan of misusing his authority as prime minister during a federal cabinet meeting on December 3, 2019, where a deed of confidentiality was approved.
The bureau accused Khan of misusing his authority to gain approximately 458 kanals of land in Sohawa, Rs285 million, and other benefits disguised as donations for the Al-Qadir University Project Trust. It also alleged that Khan and his spouse, through their associate Farhat Shehzadi, received 240 kanals of land from co-accused Ahmad Ali Riaz Malik as compensation for personal gain.
The application noted that the accountability court had framed charges against Khan and his spouse on February 27, 2024, based on nine different counts. The prosecution has so far presented 35 out of 59 witnesses. However, the defense maintained there was “no evidence of any personal gain or misuse of authority” by Khan or his spouse.
Khan’s legal team argued that the 2022 amendments to the NAO protect decisions made in cabinet meetings and cases involving allegations of misuse of authority or procedural lapses in public or government projects. They further emphasized that prosecution witnesses testified there was no personal gain to Khan or his spouse from the trust or its assets.
PTI chief’s counsel, Usman Riaz Gill, confirmed that the decision to benefit from the amended NAO was a strategic move by the legal team. Meanwhile, Imran Khan criticized the NAB amendments as being unconstitutional, asserting that such laws had never been passed in any parliament worldwide to pardon corruption.
He also claimed that during his government, NAB was under the command of then-army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, and now the bureau is being controlled by the current army chief.
