E-Paper
Court urged to hear plea on 'illegal assets' of Prez, Sharif
A Pakistani court has sought the assistance of government lawyers to decide whether to resume hearing a 12-year-old petition demanding freezing of illegal assets allegedly accumulated by 22 top politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari and former premier Nawaz Sharif.
A Pakistani court has sought the assistance of government lawyers to decide whether to resume hearing a 12-year-old petition demanding freezing of illegal assets allegedly accumulated by 22 top politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari and former premier Nawaz Sharif.
A division bench of the Lahore High Court has sought responses from the Attorney General, the federal government's top legal officer, and the Advocate General by January 21.
A petition on the foreign assets of politicians was originally filed in 1997 by lawyer Javed Iqbal Jeffery and he recently asked the High Court to take up the matter again.
The bench asked the two government lawyers to assist the court in deciding whether it could resume hearing Jeffery's petition.
In 2000, the Lahore High Court disposed of Jeffery's petition and asked the National Accountability Bureau, the country's anti-corruption agency, to redress his grievances.
In a new application, Jeffery informed the High Court that NAB had not taken any action despite the lapse of nine years.
Besides Zardari and Sharif, slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan are among the 22 politicians named in the petition.
They have been accused of transferring assets worth billions of rupees to foreign countries. Jeffery's petition asks the court to direct authorities to bring these assets back to Pakistan.
