ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday reserved its ruling on a thorny jurisdictional dispute over whether it retains the authority to hear bail applications in pending National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeals, or if such pleas must be transferred to the newly established Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) under the 27th Amendment of the Constitution.
Headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, a three-judge SC bench —also consisting of Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan — hinted while closing the case that the court’s determination would be announced in a day or two.
The bench is seized with the dispute over whether bail applications in pending NAB appeals fall within the category requiring transfer to the FCC — now a top court constituted under the 27th Constitutional Amendment.
The federal government has taken the position before the SC that both appeals and bail applications in pending NAB cases will now be heard by the FCC.
Senior counsel Ibadur Rehman Lodhi, while representing under-trial prisoner Aamir Mahmood, insisted that bail applications of under-trial prisoners such as his client fell within Section 497 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which deals with the grant of bail, and not Section 426 — relating to the suspension of sentence of a convicted individual by the appellate court — that would also allow the person to be released on bail while his appeal was pending.
