The federal government has challenged the Supreme Court decision that struck down amendments to the National Accountability Bureau laws.

The government filed its appeal under the Practice and Procdure law, recently ruled as legal by the parliament. The petition says that the court infringed upon the rights of the parliament by declaring the amendments to be unconstitutional.

The petition has asked the court to restore the amedments as it is parliament’s right to legislate.

The government, NAB as well as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan have been made parties in the petition.

A three-member bench led by former Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial had declared the amendments to the NAB law to be illegal on September 15. The decision had also announced that all corruption cases closed after the amendments would be reopened.

The decision, announced on a petition by Imran Khan, was the last of Bandial’s tenure as CJP.

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

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