Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Atta Bandial on Wednesday remarked that corruption had plagued the right to life in recent times.
Hearing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s plea on National Accountability Bureau (NAB) amendments, he remarked that bread, abode and shelter were enough for a person to live in the past, but in today’s world, education, health and other facilities were also necessary. “Two abducted girls were recovered after six years because there is no active system to ensure a speedy recovery and police had to seek support from intelligence agencies to recover them,” he remarked.
He remarked that the police’s inability violated the citizens’ right to life. “The court has categorically remarked that it does not intend to rule,” he remarked. The court had returned hundreds of cases to NAB, he said, as amendments to NAB law had taken the authority form court to proceed on pending cases. He further remarked that the amendments were constituted eight months ago but no proper mechanism had been launched to transfer the cases from the court to the NAB.
Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan inquired if the government had time to make amendments, why had it not the time to devise a system to transfer the cases.
The CJP inquired what if the NAB relinquished its authority to investigate the cases transferred to the bureau by the court and what would happen. The lawyer representing the government argued that corruption cases were dealt with fifty years ago before the NAB law was constituted.
The court adjourned the hearing until Thursday.
