PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has ordered the immediate de-freezing of more than 3,500 kanals of land belonging to a private housing scheme in Kamra, Punjab.A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah issued a detailed written judgment on a petition filed by Fakhar Alam and others.
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioners, Ashfaq Ahmad Daudzai, argued that the land owned by the petitioners in Kamra had been frozen by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in 2020. He submitted that following amendments to NAB laws, the case was transferred to a sessions court in Mardan. However, despite filing an application for de-freezing of the property, the sessions court only allowed partial relief by de-freezing half of the assets.
Challenging the trial court’s decision, the petitioners approached the PHC.In its written verdict, the high court observed that after the amendments to NAB laws, the allegations against the petitioners no longer constituted a criminal offence. Therefore, there was no legal justification to keep the properties frozen.
The court further held that under Section 12 of the NAB Ordinance, the freezing orders had ceased to have legal effect. It declared the trial court’s refusal to fully de-freeze the assets as unlawful.Consequently, the PHC set aside the 2020 orders of the NAB Director General and directed that all properties be released.
