ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday, upholding the decision of Peshawar High Court, rejected the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeal against the acquittal of former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.The court dismissed the appeal, as NAB’s counsel failed to prove the case against Sherpao. A three-member bench of Supreme Court headed by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani heard the NAB appeals against acquittal of Aftab Sherpao in four corruption references by the Peshawar High Court (PHC).
The NAB in its appeal challenged that former chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and ex-interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao allotted plots in Hayatabad.An accountability court had convicted Sherpao in the famous Hayatabad plot allotment case on December 31, 1999, but his appeal was later accepted by the PHC, which acquitted him. Consequently, NAB came into appeal before the apex court against the acquittal.The charge against Aftab Sherpao was that he, being the chief minister, abused his powers by illegally allotting plots in Hayatabad Township Scheme. He was also acquitted in another reference pertaining to illegal appointments in the Frontier Education Department.
Earlier, a three-member bench of Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousaf and Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali had dismissed NAB appeals and acquitted Sherpao in four corruption references by giving benefit of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) 2007.The Supreme Court in the last hearing had directed the NAB counsel to come up prepared on the next hearing to plead four corruption references against Aftab Sherpao. – Nation
