ISLAMABAD    -    The Supreme Court of Pakistan Tuesday di­rected the federation’s counsel to inform about returned references by the accountability courts after the amend­ments in the Nation­al Accountability Ordi­nance (NAO), 1999.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Jus­tice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah conducted hear­ing of former prime minister Imran Khan’s petition against the amendments in the NAO, 1999.

During the hear­ing, Makhdoom Ali Khan argued that ac­cording to the NAB Cash Manager Ac­count (CMA), which contains the summa­ry of returned refer­ences and acquittals in consequence of the amendments, total references returned/transferred since 2019 to-date are 221. Out of that, 29 cases are of politicians, and of the 29 references 8 are of parliamentari­ans and other accused cases are 1201. He further said that total acquittals from 2019 to to-date are 41. Out of that, 5 cases are of the politicians, and out of the 5 cases, 2 are of parliamentari­ans and other accused are 183.

He submitted that the appeals against acquittals are pend­ing before the High Courts, adding, this number must be high­er as NAB has not pro­vided complete de­tails of other accused for Karachi and Pe­shawar regions.