The National Accountability Bureau has filed an application at the Accountability Court in Islamabad to reopen the corruption cases after the Supreme Court struck down amendments to the National Accountability Law, sources said.

In its application, the anti-graft body asked for the reopening of 81 cases including cases against former President Asif Ali Zardari, former prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah and former finance ministers Miftah Ismail and Ishaq Dar.

The anti-graft body attached a copy of the Supreme Court judgment which called for reopening the cases against public office holders that had been closed by the amendments.

On his last day as the CJP, Justice (Retd) Umar Ata Bandial declared all decisions handed by accountability courts under the amended law null and void.

The decision was announced on September 15 and would result in restoring all the accountability cases against a host of politicians.

Read: CJP Bandial vows to hand down ‘short and sweet’ judgement on Khan’s petition against amending NAB law

The case was based on a petition filed by PTI Chairman Imran Khan in 2022 against the amendment passed by the parliament during the Pakistan Democratic Movement government’s tenure. The decision was announced after a total of 53 hearings.

The NAB amendments had restricted the bureau’s powers to probe corruption to only include cases involving atleast Rs500 million. The law had also reduced the tenure of the bureau’s chairman and ordered that pending inquiries should be transferred to relevant authorities.

Khan had said in the petition that the amendments had been brought to legitimise corruption and provide benefit to ‘influential’ personalities.