Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the filing of multiple corruption references against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on orders of the apex court in the Panama Papers case judgement.
Filed by Advocate Muhammad Kassim Mir Jat on behalf of Sharif, the petition requests the court to order NAB to file a consolidated reference as the filing of three separate references is “illegal, and violative of law and the Constitution, besides being violative of his [Sharif’s] fundamental rights”.
The petition claims that the filing of multiple references against an accused for each asset allegedly owned by him, which is disproportionate to his known sources of income, is repugnant to section 9 (a)(v) of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999.
“The filing of multiple references against an accused for the same alleged offence exposes him to double punishment,” the petition reads.
